Matters of Faith
by jclong
Summary: Gendo is out to do some good, in the only way that he can; by being the most magnificent, manipulative bastard that he can be. Rei is out to help us all, by doing SCIENCE! Please Read & Review! Note: Chapter 32 has been updated with a timeline and notes down at the bottom. Thank you for reading and sharing your feedback.
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Evangelion; it is owned by Anno and Gainax. If they want me to remove this, I will.

This is my first fanfic. It's going off a few assumptions:  
Gendo Ikari is a good man.  
Good is not always nice.  
Just because something is personal, does not mean that is important in the grand scheme of things.

So, just because Gendo loves his son does not stop him from manipulating his entire life in order to accomplish the Work. If he is to stop terrible things from happening, he has to make sacrifices. So, another alternate character interpretation piece. That aside, I'm going to try to keep the completely OOC to a minimum, but I make no promises.

Please read and review, I'm trying to work on my writing skills!

"A character is talking"

_A character is thinking_

Matters of Faith

The problem with Shinji, his son, was that he sometimes needed a push in the right direction. Gendo Ikari stared impassively down at his son, standing below him down in the Evangelion cages, in between Dr. Akagi and Captain Katsuragi. Shinji Ikari was a good person, but easily hurt because of his sensitive nature. The fact that he had caused no shortage of emotional trauma to his son did not escape him; but there was nothing to do for it. Had he kept the boy close with him, he would still have been alone as Gendo put his entirety into the Work. Better that he be sent to caretakers elsewhere, hidden away from the horror of the Work and the political intrigues and power plays of SEELE. Although he had not seen his son in many years, Gendo knew that his son was a good boy, if only because he was a good man.

Unfortunately, good is not always nice, and just because something was personal did not make it important.

Gendo stared down at his son, who looked away, muttering about how it was impossible for him to pilot something of this magnitude without ever having been trained for it. Gendo knew that Shinji wanted to help, but he was convinced that he couldn't. What he needed was a push in the right direction. Something on a smaller scale to focus on, instead of the enormity of the fate of mankind. Fortunately enough, Gendo had just the thing to focus Shinji.

He turned to a side panel and opened a link to the bridge. The Sub-Commander appeared on one of the screens. "Fuyutsuki, wake up Rei. The spare is useless."

The aging professor looked shocked at this statement, which completely contradicted the conversation he and his ex protege had had earlier in the day.

"Can we use her?" His voice was uncertain and matched his look of dismay.

"She's not dead yet." Gendo waited as Fuyutsuki paged Rei's room, keeping his eyes on the down-turned face of his son, who was clenching his fists, and most likely grinding his teeth. He suppressed a momentary urge to grin. Rei's tired, quite voice came over the channel, the words Sound Only displaying on the vid screen.

"Rei, the spare is useless. You will do it again." Gendo keep his voice even and detached, only half listening to the girl's whispered acceptance of what would most likely be her death sentence. He watched Shinji shaking on the catwalk as the doctor called for the Evangelion Unit 01 to be prepped for Rei.

When Shinji's look of utter shock and outrage appeared on his face as he first saw the badly injured girl being wheeled out towards the plug, Gendo could not contain his grin, even as the base shook under the Angel's assault. The grin threated to give way to joyous laughter as he watched his son cradle the girl in his arms, staring down at her. He now had his focus. Again the entire Geo-front shook, and as a large girder beam fell towards the children, Unit 01's arm broke loose, smashing the beam away from them.

Shinji looked up at his father, who was staring down at him as he held the fragile blue haired girl in his arms, feeling the pounding of her heart along with his own, as her blood soaked into his shirt and pants. "I'll do it!" he cried out- "I'll pilot it." The doctors came to take the girl Rei from his arms, and when he looked again to his father, he saw only the man's back as he left the observation bay.

----

As the bridge staff hurried to complete the final preparations to synchronize Shinji with the Evangelion, Gendo watched the proceedings from his throne above, keeping an eye on the monitor showing Shinji's face. Fuyutsuki stood next to him, hands clasped behind his back.

"You never actually intended to have Rei pilot the Evangelion, did you? This was just another one of your gambits, maneuvering your pieces around on the chessboard." The older man's voice was low and lost in the general hubbub of the bridge, and only Gendo could hear him. "

What would you have done if he still refused? We're not even sure if Rei can synch up with Unit 01." His tone was accusatory, but not harsh.

"It is inconceivable that Shinji would still refuse to pilot after seeing the condition Rei is in. Every fiber of his being would cry out against such a thing; and I am sure that the thought of still not piloting it after that never even crossed his mind. It would be an Alien concept, to do such a thing so horrific." Commander Ikari's voice was calm and even, as if he was bored with the whole conversation.

"What of the pause then? Before he called out, he just sat there, looking at Rei. Couldn't he have been weighing his life against hers then?"

"You do my son a grave injustice and discredit. He was merely in a state of shock at the extent of her injuries, and the apparent fact that I, his father, a man who has summoned him here was going to send a girl out to certain death. He knew that as son as saw her on the gurney that he was going to pilot in her stead."

The two men gave their attention the the purple haired captain below them; she was asking if they wanted to cancel the deployment on the Evangelion.

"No. We must defeat the Angel. That is all that matters."

She turned back to the front of the bridge, and sang out the command that marked the changing of the world.

"Eva Launch!" she cried, and thus Shinji was sent forth to do battle with the Angel, for Rei, and for all mankind.

Gendo grinned underneath his gloves.

----

As they stared at the silent Evangelion spewing blood and coolant from the injured head, leaning up against a shattered building, it's ruined arm lying atop another building, Fuyutsuki frowned as the bridge crew frantically attempted to achieve contact with the Evangelion and it's Pilot. He glanced down at Gendo, who stared impassively as ever at the main screens, not even sweating. _How can he be so calm? This is a disaster!_ Lieutenant Ibuki cried out in disbelief as Unit 01 reactivated itself, and a bestial roar filled the speakers. The bezerkergang was upon Shinji. As the bio-mechanical titan raged across the screen, slamming into the Angel, it's cries of anger drowned out the shouts of the crew below that this was impossible.

Fuyutsuki had only one thing to say on the matter. "We've won."

Gendo grinned like a madman underneath the cover of his gloves. If anyone had looked up at him they would have only seen him sitting impassively there, the light reflecting from off his old sunglasses hiding the fact that joy and triumph danced in his eyes.

"Yes, Fuyutsuki, we have won. It is only a matter of time now. Nothing can stop what has begun today, As long as we have Unit 01, the Third Child, and Rei, everything else is a matter of patient waiting. We have won the long war, and no one will stand in my way" He paused as the Angel, which undoubtedly would have been shitting itself in sheer, unmitigated terror had it the biological means to do so, wrap itself around the Evangelion in a last ditch effort to take it's killer with it. Light flashed across the screen as the crucifix of light stabbed into the sky and blood began to rain down. Gendo stood up from his seat and turned towards the elevator.

"Ensure that Section 2 maintains watch on him. Minor intrusion into his life only, but if anything begins to get out of hand, they are to fall with all the fury of heaven's hosts." He paused for a moment, glancing back at the screen. "The real ones, that is."

Fuyutsuki smirked at the Commander's back as he entered the lift and ascended higher into the vast building that made up the headquarters of NERV. _You have completely upset your son's life, all according to your script for him, and you want him to have some semblance of normalcy in his life until the very end. You have molded his mind and psyche into a fragile, sensitive introvert, isolated from all. You have done this a thousand times more to Rei. And yet, you love them both dearly. But still, you will sacrifice everything to accomplish your goals._

Fuyutsuki snorted, sitting down at the desk, calling up the orders for Section 2. 

_If only I could see the world in black and white like you do. It would make this job a lot easier._


	2. Chapter 2

Discalmer: I own nothing of Evangelion. It all belongs to Gainax and Anno.

This chapter is more slower paced. Not everything can be a packed to the gills action scene after all.

_A character is thinking._

__"A character is talking."

Before he even opened his eyes, Shinji Ikari knew that something was wrong. The bed in which he currently resided was most certainly not his, and the room most definitely did not smell like his room in his Uncle's house, which smelled of dry wood and old leather. This room smelled... Well, if it had a smell it was the faint stink of bleach and pine oil. It also didn't sound like his room, seeing as he didn't collect beeping medical machinery.

Sure enough, when he finally mustered the energy to open his eyes, he was staring at a ceiling he'd never seen before. Glancing over to his left, he saw the monitors he was hooked up too, and the bag of saline solution that was connected to his arm via the IV tube. He frowned at the otherwise empty room, devoid of any warmth or personality.

_What happened? I remember.. I remember a girl.. Rei? She looked so fragile... The, that thing! Evangelion? And the Angel! Oh God, what happened?_ He sat up with a start, tearing the wires from his chest and falling out of the bed as he tried to stand up, his head swimming at the sudden movement. Gripping the IV caddy, he hauled himself to his feet, panting heavily. His head began to pound and he put another hand up by his right eye, feeling it to ensure that yes, he still had both eyes, his panicked mind not processing the fact that he was actually looking at things in stereo vision. Fighting his way across the room to the small lavatory, he stared for a good five minutes into the mirror.

His head still pounding, aching more than he could ever recall it having done so before, he staggered back towards his bed, only happening to glance on something sitting on a side table next to the bed. His SDAT player, and a folded piece of paper.

The paper was plain white printer paper, nothing special. Written upon it in neat, measured handwriting was a short explanation that the LCL in the plug had ruined the clothes he had been wearing at the time, but that replacements were being acquired for him. His SDAT had also been ruined, but the anonymous writer offered this newer model as a replacement. Nothing on who had gotten it, or where it had come from, but the tape was a copy of the one that had been inside his player, recovered from his pocket after they had recovered him from the plug.

No other words of congratulations, thanks, or any sort of explanation of what was going on.

Shinji put the earbuds in, and escaped from the world. And, a few minutes later, he escaped from his room, moving into the hallway, looking out the windows that ran along the far wall into the GeoFront. He quietly recalled what he knew about it from the books he had read, like how the light was mostly natural, feeding down through miles and miles of fiber optic cable, and bounced off of thousands of mirrored surfaces to bring the light of day to a huge cavern almost twelve miles, at it's thinnest point, below the surface of the Earth. Powerful lights, also feeding into a series of mirrors, could completely illuminate the massive cave, despite the fact that from the "ground surface" to the ceiling was another eight miles. Truly, the GeoFront was a monument to the ingenuity, perseverance, and technological might of mankind.

Despite his initial amazement, not even the awe inspiring view could stir him from his black depression. It probably didn't help that the light was hurting his eyes.

Catching movement out of the corner of his eye, he turned to watch several nurses moving another patient's gurney down the hallway. He flattened himself up against the glass, and with a start, recognized the blue-haired girl being carted away, recognition playing his his eyes, and her one eye, as she was wheeled past.

A nurse came up to him, and plucked one of the earbuds out, raising an eyebrow at him. "Pilot Ikari, please, if you wanted to walk around, you should have called one of the nurses. You took quite a thrashing, and we want to be careful with you, OK?" She smiled at him, taking some of the edge off her words.

Shinji's face fell however, dropping his gaze to the floor. "Sorry... I'll go back to my room..."  
He made as to push past her, back into the room, when she caught his arm.

"Hey, now, come on... Don't be so down in the dumps. You gave us a scare, but you're all right now, right? Nothing hurting? You might have a bit of a headache, but I've got just the thing for that. Besides, there's nothing saying you can't be moving around, in fact, it's probably good for you to be stretching your muscles."

He stared at her, worried thoughts running through his head. _Stretch my muscles? Just how long have I been asleep?_

"Well...I do have a headache. Um... He glanced up at her, worry and doubt in his eyes. "How long was I asleep? Can you tell me what happened? Did... Did I win?"

She laughed, a merry, cheerful sound that astonished Shinji, who was prepared for the worst. "Oh, no, no, you won. If you hadn't, we'd not be here having this conversation. I don't know the specifics, I didn't have a chance to talk to your visitors, but from what I hear you won rather handily. Now, about your headache, " She paused, rummaging through her pockets, as he stared at her in disbelief. _He had had visitors?_ He opened his mouth as she pulled a small bottle out of her lab coat. "Now, this should put some pep into your step." Tapping three small pills out into the palm of his hand, she directed him to chew them up and swallow.

"Um, miss? How long was I asleep? Who visited me?" He looked up at her, his eyes already dilating as the drug began to work it's magic. His cheeks already flushed, and she could tell that he was feeling better.

"Well, you've been out for about three days. Some of the doctors were worried, but apparently none of the higher-ups were after they had seen you. Apparently they kinda expected you to be out of it. Something about the stress. It's all above my security level anyhow. C'mon, lets get you another saline bag for your caddy, and then we'll go for a little walk." She moved back into his room, picking up a few of the 500ml bags, hooking them onto the IV stand.

"I'm... I'm actually feeling a lot better now. Do I really need this?" He motioned to the IV, idly fingering the tube running into his arm until she gently slapped his hand away from the catheter taped into place.

"No, you might be feeling better, but it's important for you to stay hydrated. Also, that medicine I gave you? It has an after effect, it will mildly dehydrate you. So while it's helping you now, it's not a perfect solution by itself. You'll be wanting the extra fluids in a few hours, given your weight and the fact you've been out for three days."

Shinji slumped in silent defeat and acceptance. "Can you tell me who visited me? Did my my.. father come?"

She looked at him with sympathy, shaking her head before answering him. "No, I'm sorry, I can't tell you. All I know is that a bunch of higher ups came down to see you yesterday and after they pulled you from the entry plug. They bustled everybody else out of the floor, only you and Pilot Ayanamei are here on this floor. Come on, we can go to the hospital garden. It's very nice, since everything is climate controlled down here, we've got some beautiful flowers. It's very soothing, and I think the fresh air will do you good."

"OK..."

Einz, Zwei, Drei Vier!

Gendo Ikari watched his son walk next to the Section 2 Agent, who was currently putting her nursing school experience to good work. He had sighed some what as she gave him some pills, but the boy seemed to perk up almost instantly after taking them.

_And to think Kozo wondered why I hired "Non Security type" personnel for Section 2. If they can believably pretend to be something other than a suit and sunglasses, it makes them that much more effective. I also like to be prepared for any eventualtiy, no matter how inane or far fetched._ He grinned to himself, hiding it under his gloves even though he was alone in his sanctum, the vast office that he knew was called "The Tomb" by his minions. He knew this because he was the one who had written the bathroom graffiti likening himself and his office as a vampire waiting in it's tomb for the unlucky and unwary.

He was not afforded much pleasure in this world, but damn it, he would take it when he could and he did so enjoy manipulating people and his little social engineering experiments.

Back in college he had gone around asking people everyday if he could have a dollar.

Every day, for about five months before someone thought to ask why, everyday, he asked for a dollar from seemingly random people.

He had explained to the curious student that he was trying to find out when someone would notice that he was doing it, to see how much the people around him were paying attention. Several people had been present for several attempts in a single day when he asked different people for money.

He showed her his little notebook, tallying up people and totals.

She asked what he was doing with the money he was collecting. Was he going to give back the money, now that his experiment had ended?

No, he had been spending it on beer. He had never asked to borrow money, after all. Hence his presence here in the dive bar, popular with the science students.

Yui Ikari dumped her glass of beer over his head, and walked away muttering something under her breath about how impossible he was.

He grinned again and the memory, still carefully maintaining his position, hidden behind gloves and sunglasses, even if there was no way anyone could be watching.

Yui had given him $123 before thinking to ask him why he always seemed to be asking people for money.

He knew then, at that moment, he was irrevocably in love with her.

_Of course_, he mused to himself, watching Shinji walking off the after-effects of his exhausted sleep, _things were so much simpler then. Or so it seemed. If I had known what your backers were up too, even then, at that moment, I would have killed you all._

_He blinked back tears that threatened to escape their prison in his eyes. Even if I cried while killing you, I would have done it then and there. While there was still time to do something like that, to do something that had a chance to stop the genocide that was to come._

_Mankind has no time left. Not anymore_. He paused, and cycled the camera feed to another angle, watching his son opening the bag containing a new set of clothes in his room. He watched the tired, numb face of his only son, as he prepared to leave in the company of Captain Katsuragi.

He flicked another camera display into life, watching Rei as she lay sleeping, wrapped in bandages.

_No, Kozo was right. I was right. We have won, and mankind will have all the time that will ever exist. The end destination is set, all that remains to be seen is the journey._

_I can take solace in this fact. He will have the future. It is my legacy to him._

_I will have eternity with Yui. A million lifetimes with which to show her the folly of the plans of the old men, and her worthless gesture._

_A tomb means nothing if no-one visits it, after all._


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Evangelion. It all belongs to Gainax and Anno.

_A character is thinking._

"A character is talking."

_Rei Ayanami was not happy. No, she was not happy at all. For one thing, she was stuck in the NERV GeoFront hospital, in the room that seemed to be reserved for her. She knew that this room was the same room she had been in so many times before (she would not say that she had been there countless times, for she had counted her visits, and the number was 46) due to the small, broken ceiling tile in the corner of the room, over by the window nearest the head of the bed. The worst thing about being stuck in the hospital room was that there was nothing to do, nothing to occupy her mind with. She was bored._

If there was anything that you could ask her to name something that she definitely disliked, it was being bored. She had been taught, rather indirectly, and completely on accident, to keep her mind busy and occupied. No-one knew this, however, because she worked so, so very hard to emulate the one person she loved, the one person from whom she sought approval and praise.

Gendo Ikari.

Ever since being decanted from her "Reiqaurium" deep in Terminal Dogma below, she took the fractured memories of the first, and studied her adopted father, and the people around her. Since he kept everything he needed in his heart and mind, so did she. Since she never saw him display anything than a firm, calm and cold demeanor, neither did she. Lastly, since he did not have any friends, or seem to have a social life, so she walled herself off from the world, always observing, but never taking part in it except when she could not escape it.

And because she was a silly young girl, she completely missed the point of what was going on, of why he was like that, and it was not until much later did she realize that her Commander and her nemesis, Dr. Akagi, were engaged in a clandestine affair.

She had spent several sleepless nights crying into her pillow when she found out. How had she missed this major fact? How had the signs evaded her notice? Looking back, it seemed to shout out at her like an alarm klaxon. The fact that nobody else seemed to notice completely escaped her.

You see, Rei Ayanami was a scientist. If you were to ask her, she would not answer you, but stare blankly at you. But if she were to deign to let you know, she was a mix of an anthropologist, a psychiatrist, a biologist, and a mathematician.

What she didn't know about herself, however, was that she was also a poet, a philosopher, and a silly young girl, who had isolated herself and had helped the Commander turn her into a bitterly unhappy, nigh emotionless, lonely girl, even if she did not understand that she was all these things.

She had never seen the Commander express real happiness, for he hid it from all. So she grew up, distancing herself from happiness, all in an attempt to gain happiness via praise from the Commander.

She had never seen him interact like a normal person with anyone, for he did that only in private with two people, the Sub-Commander and Dr. Akagi. As she never witnesses this, so she took up the mantle of cold distance between her and all others, in an attempt to become closer to her "father". Not having the position of power he had, and not understanding what he was doing or why she was doing what she was, she turned herself into a shy, quiet, obedient, but observant and later on, an analytical girl. She was still silly though, although she and nobody else realized this.

One of the reasons she was silly was because of the reason she was a scientist. Somewhere, in the cracked and broken fragments of memories she had inherited from the image download from the first, was that Science was basically poking different things with a stick and seeing what happened.

One day, while playing in one of the GeoFront fields, she found a stick. Upon inspecting it, the memory fragment came up in her mind, and right after that, a recalled overheard conversation between the Commanders and Dr. Akagi. It had been largely incomprehensible to her, seeing as she was only about 5 years of age, but she had noted that he was interested in Science.

So she duly picked up the stick, and Science marched on.

When she finally was unleashed upon the world above the GeoFront, and sent to school, the damage had already been done. She was now an avid watcher of humanity, keeping all of her notes and observations to herself and telling no-one, not even her beloved Commander that she was doing a vast, but extremely subtle, Science experiment on all of Tokyo-3 and the people she came into contact with, all the while ever isolating herself from mankind, and not understanding the stunted and limited emotions she herself had. She also though of herself in the second and third persons, and categorized her thoughts as if she were scribing them in a scientific journal, or her memoirs.

_After all, she needed to do something besides wait for the day she could finally die. Just waiting was boring. There was Science to be done. _

If Gendo Ikari had even the slightest idea as to how far off he was on her personality and psyche, he would have scrapped the entire Rei project and begun afresh, and possibly initiating his plan B; which was a massive scorched earth program that would remove all possibility of Third Impact, human (controlled by him or not) or otherwise. He was blissfully unaware that one of the most integral parts of his vast plan was, as they say, "off her fucking rocker". If the Sub-Commander had known, he would have laughed long and hard at the fact that Rei was an extremely silly, and insane, Daddy's Girl.

_Sighing to herself, she decided to open a new file within the massive library/laboratory that she imagined her mind to be. This new file, labeled Shinji Ikari, had unconscious secondary tags of "Stud-muffin" and "Total Bad-ass". The secondary tags she consciously attached were notes that he was the Commander's son, and thus a possible rival for the Commander's attention (unlikely), and that he smelled, not unattractively, of smoke. She liked the smell of smoke. Smoke was, in her mind, one of the most immediate after-effects of doing Science to things. She did not have much to place in her mental file on young Ikari, as she had only snippets of overheard conversations about his battle, the few minutes she had observed him in a pain and drug clouded haze (she was still trying to figure out if the fleeting pleasure she had felt as he cradled her in his arms on the catwalk was some sort of physical attraction ((note to self, he is neither attractive or unattractive based on observed values of people in their age group)) or a by product of the endorphins, adrenaline and morphine ((MORPHINE!)) coursing through her system due her injuries and the shock of being moved about. She knew that he had been victorious above, due to the snippets of conversations she had overheard, she had seen him gazing silently out the window ((perhaps he uses the reflections in the windows to observe the others without calling notice to himself)) and of course, the glaring fact that they were all still very much alive. At first glance, he seemed to be not unlike herself, but she wondered what his reasons were for_ _initially refusing to pilot the Evangelion, and why he did so after seeing her. It would have been more efficient to simply obey the order to pilot when it was given, and that course of action would most likely result in praise and positive attention from Commander Ikari than refusing to obey. Did he not know that the Commander hated disobedient people? How could he not obey his father, who was his father in fact, through biological means, rather than semantic and adoptive means, for did she not obey the man who had ordered her grown and decanted, and did she not view him as her father, even if he did not show he thought of her has his daughter by the observed methods and means as her classmate's nuclear families? This was a conundrum, a problem, and a quandary_. She felt her soul warm. She had something new to work on, and she would have to apply Science to this new issue.

_Hypothesis: Shinji Ikari is not Gendo Ikari's son, biological or otherwise. She immediately decided that this was false, for would the Commander not know his own son? Would he even allow an imposter anywhere near her, or the Evangelion? The answer was no. _

_Hypothesis: Shinji Ikari is conducting his own Science, and has a different Hypothesis and desired outcome than her. This was very likely, she reasoned, using what she knew of the Commander, and her own background as a baseline for the norm, even if she was nowhere near the median of the observed actions thought processes of her classmates, because she and young Ikari shared something that the rest did not share with them; namely the Commander. She would have field work to do once she was released from this intolerable place!_

_Hypothesis: Shinji Ikari was Not conducting his own Science, and was a frightened young boy drug feet-first into the crucible of Man's Glorious War Against the Outsiders, and the Foul Dregs that Would Stab Mankind in the Back and Generally Ruin Everything. This was... possible. Definitely possible, but how probable was this? More data would be needed. More observations to gather. Within the expanse of her mind, the lab-coated, be-goggled blue haired scientist grinned. She so did enjoy field work._

She closed her eyes as she began to polish the two hypotheses in her mind, and began working out how she would go about the delicate process of testing them. Good Science called for experiments to have only one hypothesis at a time, however, she had to work with the fact that she had a limited pool of test subjects for many of her more specific experiments, namely the one person she was interested in at the time. She could not conduct one experiment against a person, and then conduct another, different one. By conducting the experiment and observing it, she changed the outcomes. She had figured this out very early, and had chalked it up to the reason why Dr. Naoko Akagi had murdered the first. _She would not let one of her experiments choke her to death, no sir!_ So after a few disastrous experiments, and some good ones, (she had to experiment on others to find out what had gone wrong with the other experiments, after all) ((It had been a strange month for the higher NERV personnel and her Section 2 escort when she had figured out she could do Science to Science.)) she knew that she sometimes had to perform different experiments at the same time on the same test group.

Einz, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji Ikari was in hell. He stared out at the apartment before him, gazing in wide wonder at the mess he had found. This place was a crime scene. His first thoughts had been that some homeless junkies had broken in, robbed the place, and then had drunken, drugged up orgies here. Cans, food containers, discarded clothing lay strewn all about.

When Misato had calmly walked past his shell shocked form and proceeded to her room, he snapped back into reality.

_This place is a wreck! Only a __**little**__ messy? How does she live? How will I live?_ His thoughts derailed as he entered the kitchen of the apartment, looking in confusion at the dual refrigerators humming away, as if this was perfectly normal. _Who has two refrigerators? Really, WHO?_ He opened the one with all the smudge marks on it, to find it filled with bagged ice, beer and cold junk food. Sighing, he stuffed the packages into the space available, and went to see about moving his few things into the room that would be his.

Dropping his backpack in the floor of the closet, he picked up the boxes that held his new school cloths and laptop, his cello case, and the box that held the few spare cloths he had brought from home. His entire world sat inside the room's small closet, if he didn't shut the sliding door. He couldn't muster up the energy or caring to even be bothered by this fact.

"Shinji! Come eat! I'm done making dinner!" Captain Katsuragi- _no, he thought to himself, Miss Misato, she wanted to be called Misato_, called to him.

_How on earth had she cooked dinner so fast? He had barely been gone five minutes!_ His stomach clenched into a small, tight ball in the center of his belly. _The food_, he thought with growing dread, _the food was all instant! Instant, mass produced, tasteless and nutrient-less trash! It was probably recycled from the packaging trash it was sold in!_ He paled, and began to shake where he stood, before forcing his muscles to unclench, and move under his command to walk back into the kitchen.

_It was worse than I had imagined_, he thought, half listening to Misato complain that he had better not be finicky with what he ate. He glanced at Misato's mouth as she talked, trying to see if her teeth were loose from scurvy. _There was no way she was getting the vitamins and nutrients that she needed for healthy survival from eating all this... this junk! It looked like he was going to have to cook for himself again, here as at his uncle's home. And if he was going to cook for himself, the least he could do for this... strange woman who had decided to take him in rather than let him live on his own was cook real food for her. And why couldn't he live on his own? he thought to himself, finally roused to something distantly approaching anger. Then it struck him like a load of bricks. This place was why she wanted him. She needed someone to take care of cooking and cleaning, as she was incapable of taking care of herself. She had a use for him now, here, just as she and his Father (FATHER!) had a use for him... back there, in the cages. Inside the thing, the Evangelion._

When it came time to "divide up the chores" he decided to just go ahead and lose on cooking and cleaning, better to just get it over with and avoid the hassle of her just telling him to do them anyways.

Done with tidying up the kitchen, Misato shooed him off into the bath, and so he went. Pouring a hot bath, he dropped into the water up to almost his nose, soaking in the near scalding water. _At least this doesn't smell like blood_. Sighing, making bubbles in the water, he mused that she probably didn't know that bad memories and thoughts came to his over-active imagination in the bath. She probably wasn't a bad person, she was just doing her job. And possibly abusing her powers just a tad bit. He had overheard her talking on the phone to someone, whoever this Rits person was. _I'm not going to put the moves on him, indeed. So he's not good enough for her to want that way huh? Well, why should she? It's not like he went out in that Evangelion thing and did... whatever it was that he had done to the Angel. It's not like he was forced into this whole mess or anything by her, Dr. Akagi, or his Father. Nooo... I'm apparently good enough to throw into some war machine, flood my cockpit with goo without warning, ruin my clothing and my sdat, good enough to be made to be the captain's live in maid and cook, but not good enough to want... like that. He wasn't even good enough to live on his_ _own! Even this Rei girl he had seen so briefly, and held too – he blushed, but it was hidden under the redness from the hot water- apparently lived on her own normally. So why me? Why am I not allowed to do this?_ In the steamy confines of the bath, Shinji Ikari began to cry quietly.

Misato watched her new charge as he dejectedly move into the bathroom. She sighed into her latest beer._ I wonder if I'm being to cheerful? Eh, he's probably already made up his mind about me._ She shrugged, and went back to drinking, watching the bathroom door. _He seemed OK, but halfway through dinner he just got real depressed. I wonder if anti-depressants are wearing off? Rits said that they would be wearing off sometime in the middle of the night._ Her musings were interrupted by the sound of the second refrigerator's door opening, as Pen-Pen waddled forth, warking at her. She nodded at the hot-springs penguin absentmindedly, watching him grab a beer from the other fridge, and waddle off to the bathroom. _The bathroom... currently occupied by Shinji_.

"PEN-PEN! Wait! There's-" She was cut off as the penguin screamed, a terrifying and bowel clenching sound if there ever was one, as he came almost flying around the corner, shrieking in fear and surprise. A loud splashing sound came from beyond the portal, as if someone had fallen into the tub. Hugging her beloved companion and unorthodox pet/child, she explained to the penguin that they had a new flatmate, called Shinji Ikari.

Said flatmate came around the corner, a towel wrapped around him, his eyes wide with shock. "Miss Misato! There was"-

"Yes, I'm sorry, you guys. I forgot to introduce you to each other. Shinji, this is Pen-Pen. He's a hot-springs penguin who I adopted. He's very smart, for a bird. Rits says he's somewhere around a dolphin. She won't tell me if that's smarter than a human or not. She says it all depends on things that she won't tell me about." She made a face at the memory of that conversation. "Pen-Pen, this is Shinji. He's a human, and the Pilot of Evangelion Unit 1, and he saved the world. He's a hero, who did a very brave thing." She was carefully watching Shinji's face as she said the last, hoping to see... well, anything cross his features. Instead, he nodded, still wild eyed, at the penguin, and moved off towards his room, giving no sign if he had heard anything she had said. She sighed again.

"Pen-Pen? I'm going to draw a bath for myself first. I've had a long day, and I'm thinking it'll be a longer one tomorrow. You can have the tub to yourself after I'm done, OK?"

Still in shock himself, the penguin warked at her and moved off into the living room to watch television.

As her bath poured, Misato pulled the cordless phone out and called Rits. She had to ask her some questions about Shinji's meds. She also wanted to gossip, she thought with a grin, but that went without saying.

Back in the room now dubbed "Shinji's Lovely Suite" by Misato on a paper heart, Shinji threw himself down on the futon, staring up at the ceiling. It would take some time before he recognized this place as home. Pushing his ear-buds in, he switched to his music, taking solace in it's comforting, soothing sounds and melodies. His eyes closed, and he drifted of to sleep.

Within the realm of his dreams, he felt the giant Angel pick him up from off the ground, and he screamed in terror.


	4. Chapter 4

The Being known as the Third Angel, now classified as Sachiel, stood there, it's body twisted and warped by the might of the N2 mine, silently watching the Evangelion as it took it's first few, faltering steps into the world. If any of the sensors used by NERV or any other human agency had the capability of translating the multi-dimensional being's reaction to watching the mightiest war machine mankind had to offer fall flat on it's face like a drunken baby, they would have heard a roaring, laugh, a jolly, but still incredulous sound. As the current technology used by man was incapable of doing such a translation, the audio pickups only recorded the echos of the Evangelion smashing into the concrete. Inside the entry plug, Shinji grabbed his face and moaned in pain, not understanding why his nose felt like it was both broken and not broken at the same time. As the Angel loomed overhead, blocking out everything else, Shinji began to scream in terror and shock.

Sachiel seemed to regard the fallen Evangelion momentarily, before picking it up by wrapping one massive hand around the front of the helmet. Reaching up with it's other hand, it grabbed one of his arms(not his arm) and began to pull at the limb, as if it wanted to rip it from the body at the shoulder, twisting it in every direction possible. Growing bored of this, it suddenly... flexed it's muscles in it's arm, but not in any manner any terrestrial beast could, but by simply moving more muscles into the arm. Once it's arm had bulked up enough to it's liking, it snapped the Evangelion's arm(Shinji's arm) in half.

Shinji began screaming even louder than before, his eyes screwed shut in pain as he grasped his arm in sympathetic pain and agony, his unprecedented first-time synchronization score of 42% coming around to bit him in the rear. He could barely make out the shouts coming from the speakers, the voices sounding small and tinny, as if they were far, far away. If he had not been submerged in the LCL, he would have screamed himself hoarse.

Sachiel's arm extended it's long bone, sliding out at where it's elbow analogue was, glowing a malevolent pink as energy poured into it, sapped from the very air around it. It slammed right back into it's arm, and out the hand holding onto the Evangelion's face. The entire robot shook violently, and Shinji clutched at his eye now, no longer making any sounds that didn't resemble anything more than a whimpering gurgle. Finally, the armor casing broke under the continued onslaught, and the massive spike shot through the Evangelion's head, ripping through the eye, the brain and then the back of the bio-mechanical giant's skull. Releasing it's hold on the Eva, it reached up with one leg, and kicked the human's only hope off the spike and into a building. Dismissing the wrecked giant from it's mind, it turned to begin the assault on Tokyo-3 anew.

Blood and coolant sprayed forth from the head wound, and oozed out of the shattered arm. Shinji couldn't hear anything from the speakers now, his ears filled with a massive, skull splitting ringing, and as he closed his eyes in pain, slumping down in the seat, so did Unit 1 slump down across the ruined front of the skyscraper that had arrested it's tumble.

Rei paused the video playback, and then turned her attention to the television set sitting next to it, fast forwarding through the recording to a point right before the Angel picked up Unit 1 from the street. Pressing play, she watched the recording of the NERV control room, as Captain Katsuragi and Dr. Akagi tried to salvage the situation.

Through the window in her hospital room's door, Gendo watched Rei sitting in her bed, eight television stands before her, each with a recording of the monumental battle from a different vantage point and location. He turned to Dr. Akagi, allowing himself the excess of a raised eyebrow as he silently asked her the question.

"She's been watching the battle for hours. According to her Section 2 nurse, she pulled herself out of bed at three in the morning, apparently to go look for recordings of Shinji's fight. She insisted that she watch the films, so that she could study how he won, so she could be prepared for fights in the future. Her nurse convinced her to stay in bed, and that she would get her a television and a DVD of the fight. After watching **that**, she demanded the rest of what you see there. She watched each of the recordings straight through, back to back, and then started skipping around on multiple ones to different points and watching them in tandem, or focusing on specific points. I'm not sure what she's trying to get out of all this. When I came up to check on her this morning, and found out about it all, I contacted you. This is way outside her normal behavior. I have to admit that I'm at a loss to explain it."

Gendo frowned slightly, and again turned his attention to the pale girl, who was focused with laser like intensity on three of the screens now, as the recorded Lt. Ibuki cried out that the pulses were flowing backwards, and the control connections were being refused. Gendo had never seen Rei pay so much attention to anything before. It was... unsettling, to say the least. He could believe that she wanted to learn how to best fight the Angels, for that was part of her purpose, but this seemed a little overboard for the girl. The last time she had gotten anywhere near this... obsessive over something she had burned down the apartment building she had been living in, down here in the GeoFront. That had been what caused him to relocate her to surface, and attend school. It wasn't fair to the girl to keep her all cooped up, with no outlet for the energy he knew she hid from the world. So far it had appeared that it had worked, for there had been no repeat of her demolishing a concrete and steel structure. Still, that was why he had her living in the rundown complex in the east district; if she burned that one down too, nobody would really notice or care. It also helped to isolate her somewhat, and keep her still pliant to the ultimate needs of his plan.

He mentally shrugged. If she wanted to obsess over the fight, he would indulge her. She needed a hobby of some sort, and if it helped defeat the enemies of mankind, so much the better. At least she didn't demand much of his time and attention to keep her pliant, unlike certain other people in his plan. He glanced at Dr. Akagi out of the corner of his eye, as she tried to look like she was trying not to fidget in what she thought was a quite, adorable way. He didn't understand what about him it was that drove the Akagi women to want him the way both generations had. But if he paid enough attention to her, hopefully she wouldn't chuck herself over the railing in the control room like her mother had, after strangling Rei I. He wasn't even sure why Naoko had murdered the young girl. The security system back then was not the sophisticated array of cameras and microphones they enjoyed today. It was something that would bother him for the rest of his life, even if he didn't voice his concern to anyone but his old professor. While Ritsuko clearly wasn't fond of Rei, at least she didn't show any murderous tendencies. It was probably the whole power thing, he mused as they walked along the hallways. Naoko hadn't been that interested in him until he had secured a major coup, firmly securing GERHIN's place and setting the base of power for his scenario. She had been the one who had set him and Yui up on that blind date the first time. She had never beaten around the bush about her feelings about things and people before, so it was unlikely that she had harbored anything for him while he and Yui met, and then eventually started dating, and then got married.

He decided to bite the bullet and ask her if she wanted to go to dinner tonight. He knew that she knew that he didn't love her, and he only saw her to keep her happy, while he knew that she knew, he also knew that she didn't care, and delighted in their "romantic" dinners. Why she couldn't seek her fun elsewhere, he wasn't certain, but suspected that she liked having a modicum of control, no matter how illusionary, over one of the most powerful men in the world. But, if this was the price he had to pay to save mankind, it was a paltry sum compared to the things that he needed to do to others to keep things moving smoothly.

If he could keep the worst things to directly, personally ruining the lives of four children, he would count himself blessed. If he had to murder entire nations to ensure that SEELE's goals did not come to fruition, he would count himself lucky.

As her commander and her nemesis discussed dinner plans, Rei II paused the eight televisions, as Unit-1 reactivated, despite the lack of external power, and the depleted internal batteries. She frowned, despite muscle memory trying to keep her mouth in smooth line, at the array before her.

_Something is not right here. Something is very, very wrong. The monitor shows a synch ratio of 00%. That's not a real number for the display. Single digits are not shown with a leading zero, and a score of 100% would read as one hundred, and not as double zeros. Rei does not think that anyone-else noticed this, as they are all focused on the fact that Unit-1 is already doing something that should be impossible as opposed to being merely massively improbable. Perhaps it is a sensor error? It would be easy to explain it away as that, this is the first time an Evangelion unit has been deployed in battle, and it is a test bed unit, after all. _She blinked. _It's an infinite synch ratio! He released himself completely! He became the Evangelion! Is this repeatable? Can Rei or he duplicate this? Did he consciously do this? Improbable. He's never seen Unit-1 before. Being able to shed his ego border and become the Evangelion should have been impossible for a first time pilot. Perhaps he is not a first time pilot? That would explain his unusual sync score. I was made for this, and I only had a 12% score my first time in Unit-0. But when would he have piloted? Unit-1 has never before left this facility, and he has never been here while I have been here. Also, his estrangement and negative attitude towards the Commander would be at odds for someone who had piloted before, and his remarks about never even having seen it before add more evidence to him not being a pilot._

Her eyes brightened as a new thought struck her.

_Hypothesis: Shinji Ikari is a time traveler, or a dimensional traveler, and has either come back in time from the future, or from anther dimension or reality, a parallel world, to this point. Perhaps Third Impact occurred in his timeline, or world, and he either was accidentally or purposely sent back here, in order to halt said impact. Unfortunately, this is very unlikely. His shock at seeing the Evangelion was real, he was not acting. Also, if he had prior experience, his battle should have ended sooner, and he should not have initially refused the Commander. _

_However, what about the fact that Unit-1's arm broke free of it's restraints, and shielded him from falling debris? There was no entry plug inserted, and the signal terminator should have kept any sort of radio-waves or electro-magnetic wave or pulse from entering the system, even if the Evangelion could be remotely controlled in such a way. Did he release his ego border enough to protect himself from harm? Was he both Unit-1 and Ikari at the same time, in two different locations? Would that even work? Note to self: attempt to synch with Unit-0 from outside the Evangelion in the future. If a normal human can do it, an engineered being, made especially to pilot the Evangelions, and has already provided proof of concept for soul transference to different bodies, should be able to do so. _

_Note to self: If remote synchronization with an Evangelion unit is possible for me, could activation of multiple clone bodies at the same time with a singular cononsis be also possible? _

_If Ikari is indeed a post Third Impact personage, his knowledge would be invaluable to the Cause. Perhaps he is unsure of his own plans here. Or, Unit-1 is different in shape and armaments from what he used before. That would account for his hesitation, surprise at the sight of the unit, and his poor form in the opening parts of the battle. _

Narrowing her eyes, Rei ceased frowning. _None of this makes sense. How can one prove that Ikari is a traveller? How does one ascertain this? If he is moving at cross purposes to the Commander, he cannot be allowed to continue. However, if he is not a traveller, and is merely doing Science and testing his Hypothesis, or even if he is just a... a... scaredy cat, (What would he look like with a collar with a bell on it?) any sort of test that would cause him to reveal prior knowledge that he should not have would render him useless to me. It would render him useless to the Commander. _

_Note to self: Determine if continued and prolonged physical contact with Ikari reproduces sensations of warmth and fuzziness. Ensure that all pain-killing medications have been processed out of body first, before attempting the Experiment._

_The Commander should be appraised of the possibility that Ikari is a time traveller. However, this could cause Ikari to become incarcerated, and would not be receptive to experiments. Test data would be skewed. This is unacceptable. Further analysis of the time travelling hypothesis is required, and will be placed on the shelf for now, no matter how appealing the idea is. It is much more likely that Ikari is like me, or one of the children from school. _

Rei's attention was captured by the pinging sound of the intercom on the room's telephone.

"Rei?" The Commander's voice filled the room with it's even tone and cadence. "If you are capable of independent movement, report to my office."

Her response was immediate, and carried with it the sounds of an excited girl on her birthday. "Yes sir. I will be there as soon as possible." Even as she spoke, she flipped the televisions off, getting out of the bed. Even if she had not been capable of independent movement, she would have reported to his office. Sliding her feet into her slippers, she threw on the the lab coat she had pilfered from the warehouse years ago. Grabbing her I.V. caddy, she left the room.

Einz, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Dr. Akagi looked over the banks of computer displays showing Shinji's current status levels. So far, everything was looking good, with no apparent abnormalities. He had reached the third stage of synchronization with no issues, unlike a similar test two weeks ago with Rei. However, given his successful link up with the Evangelion in the fight with the Third Angel, this came with little fanfare. Shinji would not have been happy whatsoever to hear that Rei's horrific injuries had been caused by this same test, but she had glossed over that part in her brief to him this morning.

Misato came up alongside her, watching the video display from the camera mounted facing the pilot's seat. Shinji looked dead tired, dark circles under his eyes.

"He hasn't been sleeping well, has he, Misato?" Ritsuko asked her friend. "A byproduct of your cooking?"

Misato shot a dirty look at the blond scientist. "Actually, he's doing most of the cooking now. He lost out when we split up the chores. He really sucks at rock, paper, scissors. I think he's having PTSD induced nightmares. We had similar issues with some of the troops back in my old armor unit. I actually wanted to ask you about how you were planning on administering his sleep meds, and his anti-depressants. I don't think he'll be as receptive as Rei to just taking pills. He just mopes about whenever we're at home, and isn't interested in going anywhere after the tests are done, unless he needs to buy food or cleaning supplies. He closes himself up in his room and listens to that SDAT of his. Where did he get a new one? I didn't know that he had it in his pocket until after we recovered him. It was destroyed by the LCL."

Ritsuko raised an eyebrow at Misato, smirking slightly as she recorded data onto her clipboard. "Everything not working out like you thought? What about your cheery demeanour, it's not bringing him up out of his funk? That explains the lower synch ratio though." She tapped her pen against the display, which read at 25%. "He's way down from before. We were considering just telling him that the pills are a vitamin series to help him. Hopefully, once the initial phase of tests and familiarization exercises are finished, he'll start to feel better. He'll be entered into the school on the surface, with Rei. It's done wonders for her, allowing her to socialize, as much as she does at any rate, and keep her feeling connected to the people she's fighting to protect. Otherwise, he might just want to leave, and we can't let that happen. He's been tried in combat, and he came out a winner, even if it was at terrible cost." She poked Lt. Ibuki in the shoulder with her pen. "Maya, can you run him through the weapon and power plug resupply point exercise? Once you're done, transition into targeting practice with the Mk. 3 Pallet Rifle.

"Yes ma'am!" Lt. Ibuki smiled up at her mentor, before focusing at the task given to her, opening up a communications line to the Eva-Simulator Body. "Ok, Shinji, do you remember what we talked about yesterday? Tell me where you can obtain a resupply of ammunition for the Mk. 1 Patriot Launcher?" Her smile quickly turned into a frown as Shinji replied, his voice tired and worn.

"The Patriot missles can be gotten at junction 4a, from the small building next to the boweling alley." Shinji replied from rote memory, having had the locations for a wide varaity of Evangelion used weapontry and power socket locations drilled into him over the past three days.

"Come on, Shinji, perk up! Once we're done with this, you'll get to shoot in the simulator! You boys like to shoot guns, right? You'll be shooting some of the largest munitions available to mankind! Lots of people would love to have a chance to do that, right, Aoba?" She turned her head over to Lt. Shigeru, silently mouthing at him to help her out. Shaking his head and rolling his eyes, he opened his communication line to Shinji's plug.

"That's right! If you want, just to put it in perspective, I'll take you to the actual range we have for our small arms training, and let you see the difference. It can be a lot of fun, Shinji."

"If you say so." Shinji's reply was non-commital, but his synch ratio jump a few points before droping down again, but it was higher than before. "What... what would we be shooting?"

Aoba smiled and shot Maya a high five. The kid was biting... now all they needed to do was reel him in. "Well, the basic issue sidearm issued to NERV Technicians is a 9mm pistol, but I've also got a .45 automatic we can use. If you like those, we might have security bring us some rifles, and you can compare the human sized thing to your pallet gun. Does that sound good?"

While Shinji appeared to like that idea some, Maya was less than enthused. Muteing her line, she hissed at the long haired tech. "What are you thinking? The Commander might let us get away with letting him shoot our pistols, but he won't let him near the heavier stuff!"

Aoba wasn't too sure of her argument. "He won't even care. I mean, three years without any sort of communication with the kid, and then he summons him here, and then has one conversation with him, and then nothing else? He won't even notice."

Einz, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

The elderly Sub-Commander smirked as they watched the conversation the young lieutenants were having. "Will you notice, Gendo? Will you notice that your son is practicing shooting a rifle? Will it be your face he imagines at the top of the target?" He looked at his protege, sitting at his desk with his hands folded over the lower half of his face.

"I'll be the first to admit that the idea of the Third Child practicing with small arms is not one that would let me sleep well at night, but I do not think that he hates me enough to want to kill me. Shout at me, demand to know why I have abandoned him, why I have thrown his life into chaos, but he still loves me. And he wouldn't kill his father. He's not that type of person. He's much better than that. I do think that he will need a friend before he goes to school though. He obviously cares about Rei, and I think she might have some budding feelings for him, if her little television episode this morning is anything to go by."

Kozo chuckled at the thought of a clinicly withdrawn girl and a boy with abandonment issues being friends. "Trying to make up for the fact that life's events have gone a little too much to your script for them? These children are damaged goods Gendo. You knew this when you started out, you even planned for it to happen. You broke them, and you'll not be done until they are nothing but dust. You're the one who convinced me of what must be done. You're the one who convinced us all. It's far too late to be having second thoughts about this."

Gendo sighed, dropping his hands as he buried his face in his arms on the desk. I know that. I know what's at stake. I know that they won't have a happy ending, no "and they lived happily ever after". But even if it's just temporarily, no matter how fleeting, I would like him to have some measure of happiness that won't threaten the security of the scenario. What is at stake is much more important than just them. They will save the world in more ways than one. And if we're very, very lucky, they might live through it. That's what I hope for. But I'm not planning on it. It might be kinder for them to die in the end.

"It's frustrating to know that we've won, even though the long war still needs to be fought. Especially since it depends on us keeping a few specific pieces in play. You might be able to plan for everything, but you can't prepare for it all."

The two men's conversation came to a halt as the entry bell chimed. After snapping back into thier positions, Gendo unlocked the door with the switch from his desk. He smiled at Rei as she hobbled in, half dragging her I.V., half using it as a crutch. "Hello Rei. How are you feeling today?"

Rei smiled back at the Commander, keeping it brief due to the presence of the Sub-Commander. "I am healing on schedule. Dr. Akagi does not believe that the incident in the Evangelion cage caused ancillary damage. I should be fully healed in twenty two days."

"That is good to hear. Are you keeping up with your school work? You will not want to be too far behind the other students when you return to class." He was well aware that she was keeping current on the school work, even if she didn't turn it in. While he was at a loss as to why, it didn't matter in the larger scheme of things. What was important was the minimal socialization and stress alleviation that the school environment provided.

"I am keeping up to date on curriclum as the sylabuss provided states." She was a firm beliver in schedules and things going to plan, thanks in no small part to the Commander, even if he was unaware of it.

"That is good Rei. Dr. Akagi advised me this morning that you had taken an interest in the battle with the Third Angel and the Third Child. What have you learned from your studies thus far?" _This should prove interesting._

"I have learned that the Third Child, Pilot Ikari, despite a much higher than normal initial synchronization score, showed little aptitude for controlling Unit-1's motor functions. Initial evidence supports an hypothesis that while with significant training, Pilot Ikari could be capable of extremely fine control over the Evangelion, but his battle offers little tactical insight towards efficiently destroying the remaining Angels other than beating on them until they decide they would rather commit suicide than be pummeled with parts of their own anatomy."

Gendo watched the Young girl. _She spends all day watching the battle, over and over, and this is all she can offer me? She does like him. Of course, the boy came riding in like a knight in shining armor to save her from what would be certain death, despite all reason screaming at him to flee. _He smiled, but not at Rei, even though it was in her general direction. _The strengthening of this bond between the two will only increase the odds of their survival. Besides, if she is to properly focus his hero syndrome, they will need to be close. _"And what do you think of the Third Child, Rei? What do you think of... Pilot Ikari?" He stressed his son's name, carefully watching for her reaction.

Rei felt a burning sensation and hoped that she wasn't blushing. _How embarrassing would it be to show such a display? We haven't even been introduced properly, as the others measure such things. _Working to keep her voice level, she looked her Commander in the eyes. "I do not think that he should of refused initially to pilot Unit-1. Waiting to make his decision after seeing my medical condition was not the most efficient means of coming to terms with his duty. I have not been able to establish a valid reason why he would do so." _A lie. A direct lie to the Commander! Why?_ _I do not want him to interfere with my Science on Pilot Ikari. It is clear that he did not wish to meet extinction at the hands of Third Impact._

"Rei, I think then that you should ask him why he was so inefficient. I know that you are not close to anyone in your class, but as both of you are Evangelion Pilots, perhaps you two could be friends. This isn't an order, however. Decide for yourself, but you should get to know the Third Child. You will be working together to save the human race."

Rei blinked. _I should be closer? This would open many avenues for Science to be done. _"Yes, sir."

"Good. That is all for now Rei. You may go."

Lost in thought, she turned and left.

"Laying it on a little thick, aren't you Gendo? You were all but telling her to go and claim him for her own."

"Nothing so crass as that, Fuyutsuki." Gendo scoffed. " Besides, she needed a major push in his direction. She wouldn't do so otherwise, and no matter how enamoured he might be of her, Shinji would be to scared of rejection to approach her, and besides, he probably thinks that she's a replacement for him."

"If only he knew her true purpose. He wouldn't think so any more."

"He's a boy, Kozo. He might be a Hero, and he might just save all of humanity, but he's not ready to know what is going to happen. Not yet. He might never be ready."

"If he is as much like you as you claim, he's already ready for the truth. You know what you were like when you were younger. Your drive, your sense of moral obligation. Your sense of duty."

"He didn't grow up the way I did. I made damn sure of that. Even if I'm going to wreck him now, he did not grow up in the gutter like me. We all have potential, and we are all shaped by our environment. Besides, growing up in the gutter would make him useless for us. He would be fighting with his head, not his soul."


	5. Chapter 5

"Aida! Aida! Did you deliver those printouts to Suzahara yesterday? Why's he been absent from class?" Hikari Horaki, the Class Representative focused her stare at the bespectacled boy, who lifted his head up from the manual he was reading.

"I swung by his house again, but nobody's there, same as the last times. I left the printouts in the mail slot." He stuck his nose back into his camera manual.

Hikari, fidgeting, put her hands on her hips, addressing him again. "What good does that do? What if he doesn't check the mail? Wait, no-ones been home for the past week, do you think they've moved away? Why wouldn't he say something?"

"They haven't moved away, all of their stuff is still there. It's just that nobody's been home."

"Well, where is he then? What about his father? His grandfather? Or his sister? Where could they all be?"

"I don't know, Horaki. It's a mystery."

"Isn't he your friend? Why are you being so casual about this? What is wrong with you?" Hikari asked, exasperated with the nerd.

Just then, Toji Suzahara walked into the room, sinking into the seat behind Kensuke's. His track suit looked like he'd slept in it, but the lines under his eyes suggested he hadn't been sleeping, or at least he hadn't been sleeping well.

"Suzahara! Where have you been?" Hikari asked, drifting closer to the boy's desk. "You've missed almost over a week of classes."

"Hey Hikari. I've been in the hospital."

Aida shot a glance at the class rep. "Told you there were casualties and injuries. You can't trust everything you see on the TV."

Taken aback, Hikari blushed a little as she stammered out her next question. "But.. you look OK. Who... who was hurt?"

Toji sighed. "My sister got hit by some rubble and debris from during the fight. The docs aren't sure if she'll walk again, but she's stable now. Both my dad and gramps are stuck at work, so they can't be there for her, so I've stayed at the hospital with her. The doctors are forcing me to go back to class now." He scowled. "It's a good thing that NERV is keeping the identity of their pilot secret, otherwise I'd beat some sense into him. He's supposed to be protecting us, not hurting us!"

Hikari gasped at Toji's deceleration of promised violence. He had always had a bit of a temper, and had a reputation for playing maybe a little rough in PE, but he also had a kind, caring nature. Sometimes she thought she was the only one who saw it.

Aida spoke up. "Yeah right. The pilot's probably been train in hand to hand combatives. It's a required course for fighter pilots, in case they get shot down in enemy territory. He'd take you out without breaking a sweat. Besides, NERV's probably got a half dozen spooks sitting around the guy just waiting for someone to start something. They wouldn't bother fighting you with hands or feet, they'd shoot you or tazer you."

Toji scowled at his friend, but had to admit he was right. Someone as important as the pilot of a giant robot would have a security detail watching him like a hawk for danger. Sighing again, his gaze drifted over the classroom, which was missing almost half the students.

"Seems like everyone's jumping ship."

"Yeah, we've had a lot of families move out. There's talk that the school will consolidate a couple classes together." Hikari said, sitting on Toji's desk.

Toji said nothing as he continued to look around the room, and then pointed at Shinji, who was sitting a few rows up from them, his earbuds in, isolating himself from the world. "Hey, who's that guy? I haven't seen him around before."

"Oh him? That's Ikari. Shinji, I think." Aida shot a question glance to Hikari, who nodded. "Yeah, Shinji. Quiet guy. Seems to zone out a lot. Listens to his SDAT. He seems a bit taken with Rei though. His first day, he almost couldn't stop staring at Rei."

Toji snorted. "That doesn't mean anything. Lots of people stare at her when they first meet her. Or when she starts acting weirder than normal."

"Toji! That's not nice." Hikari snapped. She had always felt a little sad for the girl, who never seemed to fit in, or try to be friends with anyone at school. She had remembered the first month of Rei trying in the most bizarre fashions to become friends with people when she first showed up two years ago. It just seemed that one day she just quit trying, and if anyone tried to extend an invitation to the girl, they were rewarded with a blank stare. She couldn't imagine how the girl got away with dying her hair blue, but she imagined that people just accepted it.

"It's the truth though, Hikari." Kensuke pointed out, still reading his manual as he talked to his friends. "There's a bunch of rumors going around about him, mostly saying that he's the pilot of the robot. Seems dumb to me. That sort of thing only happens in comic books and movies. Military pilots are required to have college degrees, and have a ton of schooling in both actual use with their machines, and regular studies, mostly focusing in science. Even if they entrusted what has to be a multi billion dollar piece of equipment to a kid, he'd be so far ahead of us in his studies that it wouldn't make any sense to stick him in a regular middle school. He'd be a college graduate, or close to it, seeing as this was an emergency situation, if the other rumors are to be believed."

Toji stared at the new kid. "Does he seem like he's ahead of us in such studies?"

"A bit, but that's because he was home-schooled before getting here." Hikari hastily pointed out, not liking the gleam in Toji's eyes.

"Could be a cover story." Toji muttered, under his breath. Hikari opened her mouth to protest, but was cut off by the arrival of the teacher.

During lunch, Shinji sequestered himself under a tree in the open air common area. From inside the classroom, Rei watched him as he ate his food mechanically, still listening to whatever it was he listened to on his SDAT.

_Note to self: Pilot Ikari isolates himself from the rest of the class, both during and outside of actual the actual classroom environment. He does not belong to any activity club, even ones that would not be in conflict with the requirements of NERV operations, such as the book club. He has not made any attempts to become friendly with anyone, and seems to be unaware, or politely dismissive of other peoples attempts to be friendly with him. This lends support for the Hypothesis that Pilot Ikari is like Pilot Ayanami, which in turn leads one towards accepting the idea that Pilot Ikari is conducting his own Science and testing his own Hypotheses. He has not revealed that he is indeed the pilot of Evangelion Unit-1, despite the probable social status and recognition it would bring. It is unlikely that he is the source of the rumors to that effect, however it could be part of his experiments. Continues to sneak glances at me, and seems to be unaware that he is being observed via the reflections in the windows. _She had been interested in the fact that he had not chosen a place by the windows, which allowed her to observe people without them noticing that she watched them. It suggested to her that he wasn't involved in Science. So far she had several pieces of evidence supporting and not supporting him running his own experiments. She was undecided still on if he was or wasn't. She hadn't put this much effort into a singular subject in quite some time, she was amused to note. Was this because she was ordered to, or was it a hold over from the sensation she had felt from being held in his arms? She had not yet contrived a way to set up a plausible situation that would allow her to conduct an experiment on that without skewing the results or the results of repeated tests. She couldn't be the initiator in the setup. It had to be normal, or as normal as a carefully planned out scenario could be.

Carefully eating her own lunch with her one good hand, she continued her observations, unaware that someone else was watching Shinji eat his lunch.

Toji stood by the railing on the roof, watching the courtyard below. Kensuke looked up at him as he finished his own lunch. "What's with the thousand yard stare Toji?"

"Just thinking, Ken. Just thinking."

Stretching out, Kensuke stood, and followed Toji's stare. "Oh man, come on. That kid's not the pilot. Look at him. **I **could take him in a fight, and you know how well I fight."

Toji didn't bother to smile at the memory of how he and Kensuke had become friends back in elementary, when another kid had taken the boy's glasses, Ken had started fighting rather ineffectually. When Ken had been thrown into Toji, Toji threw himself at the bully.

"Still. I could see it. Hid a pilot in school. No one would suspect it!"

"Except that he's just a kid, he's not a genius, he's just studied what we're studying already. Different curriculum is all. Besides, what good would it do?"

"It'd make me feel better."

"Would it? Just beating up some random guy? Come on man."

Toji friend was right. Hitting some random guy wouldn't make him feel any better.

"Let's get back to class."

Sitting through the teacher's lectures on environmental changes post Impact was boring for everyone. Rei sat watching Shinji's reflection as he struggled not the fall asleep. He might be ahead of the class, but he still wouldn't be allowed to sleep in class unpunished. Rei herself felt the siren call of the top of her desk, but willed herself to remain alert.

She stirred suddenly, which amounted to her shifting a little in her seat. Slowly, as to not attract attention, she began to type, as if taking notes on the lecture. Instead she opened a chat terminal with Pilot Ikari's laptop, having it be on a visible room, but having her user-name be hidden.

"Is it true that you're the pilot of the robot? Y/N"

Shinji looked up at the beeping computer. He glanced around the room, trying to find a hint of whomever had sent him the message. He hadn't been told that he could not tell people he was the pilot, but as he hadn't seen Rei talk to anyone about it, and as no-one had yet come out and asked him, he had kept quiet. However, nobody seemed to be paying him any attention, everyone focused on their screens, or dozing. Another message came up as he was looking around.

"Is it true? Y/N"

Rei watched with growing amusement as he tried in vain to figure out who was sending him the message. _Or, at least he appeared to be trying in vain. Perhaps he already knew! There is no evidence to suggest this however._ She mused to herself. If he knew what she was doing, he gave no sign of it. Her eyes brightened as he typed out a response.

Shinji, being new to the classroom's chat client, was unaware that the conversation was being displayed in a public forum. If he had known, he would have been too shy to admit it that he was the pilot publicly.

"Yes"

The class erupted into chaos as the students swarmed around Shinji's desk, with a few exceptions.

Hikari, who tried in vain to return order to the class, Kensuke, who just stared in shock at this revelation, Rei, who calmly observed everything in the window, and Toji who stared daggers at the boy's back.

The instructor turned around as the bell rang, and blinked at the throng of students surrounding the transfere student. It was the end of the day however, and he wanted to go home, so he merely rolled his eyes as he dismissed them.

Shinji, still trying to answer what he could, but hiding behind the excuse of "that's classified", escaped outside, making ready to go home. He heard footsteps coming up behind him, and then the world spun and he went crashing to the ground in a daze of pain.

Groaning, feeling blood trickle down his face onto his shirt, he looked up through glassy eyes at the larger boy in the tracksuit, who reached down, and grabbed him up by the shirt's collar and smashed his fist across Shinji's jaw, splitting his upper lip. Toji dropped Shinji, who fell to the ground.

"Sorry, new guy. That's for my sister. How did you get to be a pilot? I thought you guys had to be smart or something. Don't you know you're supposed to protect the city and us, not destroy it?" Not waiting for an answer, he turned to leave.

Kensuke, looking shocked, knelt down next to Shinji. "Yeah, he's a mean one, but he means well. His cares about his sister, and she got hurt in your fight. I know it doesn't hel-" He was cut off by Shinji's hissed retort.

"I didn't do it by choice. They made me pilot it." He spit blood, glaring at Kensuke. "Bedide I-" He in turn was cut off as Toji kicked him in the ribs, who then reached for to pick up Shinji again as someone quietly cleared her throat. All three boys looked over at Rei, who stood in the door, watching them.

Breaking the shocked silence first, Toji spit on Shinji. "C'mon Ken, let's get out of here." Not waiting for a response, he thrust his hands in his pockets and strode away.

Kensuke glanced at Shinji, then at Rei, and with an apologetic look at both, he shrugged and followed his friend.

Shinji collapsed back onto the ground, groaning in pain as he felt a stabbing sensation when he breathed. Ignoring the blood still pouring from his nose and mouth, he felt at his side, wincing as he ran his hands over his ribs.

Rei, for her part, was shocked. This was unexpected. She had not expected this to occur. It raised a whole slew of new questions. Looking at the bloodied boy, she tilted her head slightly.

"Why did you not fight back?" She asked, her voice quiet. It was the first time she had spoken to him.

Looking up at the girl, Shinji slid his eyes to the side and muttered under his breath.

Undaunted, Rei sat down next to Shinji, much to his shock. She asked her question again, as she undid some of the bandages that were wrapped around her arm.

"You could have fought back, Pilot Ikari. Why did you let him hit you?" She paused, and then to Shinji's ever growing shock, began to stem the flow of blood issuing from his nose. "Your nose is broken, and from the way you shudder when you breath, you have at least one cracked rib. We should have the Section 2 personnel take us to the NERV hospital."

Shinji stared at her. Section 2? Who was that? Why was she being so nice after ignoring him this entire week? Of course, he realized that he hadn't really said anything to her either."

"Why... why are you being nice to me? Why are you doing this?" He asked nervously, desperately trying not to move as her hand moved about his face with the now bloody bandage.

"Because you did much the same in the Evangelion Cage when the Third Angel's directed energy weapon caused structural damage to Headquarters and threw me off of the gurney." She looked directly into his eyes. _His eyes are blue. Why is this notable?_ "You have not answered my question, Pilot Ikari."

Blushing under her intense gaze, he shifted his attention over to the left, away from her. "I deserved to get hit. I should have been more careful. I hurt his sister." He gasped as she began to unbutton his shirt. "Ayanami! What... what are you doing?" He winced, his side felt like it was on fire.

She looked at him blankly. "I am unbuttoning your shirt. I need to ascertain the extent of your injury."

He blinked at her, but buttoned his shirt back up. I'll be.. OK until we get to the hospital. You're not... going to say anything about this are you? Please don't." He slowly pulled himself into an upright sitting position.

"I do not believe that you will be able to hide your injuries, Pilot Ikari." Seemingly distracted by something, she put her hands hands in her lap.

"I'll just say I tripped down the stairs. It's my fault, really. And, please, don't call me pilot. Just... Shinji or something."

She stared at him. He wasn't making any sense at all. "You realize that you could have him arrested, correct? You could also probably talk your Section 2 escort into roughing him up." _If he could talk them into roughing up Suzahara, it would be major evidence towards him running his own experiments. I doubt that anyone as timid as he seems would be able to do such a thing._

"Ayanami, who is Section 2? You keep talking about them." As weird as this whole situation was, and as much pain as in, it was oddly pleasant to be sitting here, talking to the blue haired girl.

She blinked again at him. He was starting to get he feeling that was how she displayed surprise.

"Section 2 is the internal and secret security force for high ranking NERV personnel and they function as NERV's clandestine intelligence gathering body. As a pilot, you have a Section 2 escort. While at school, they are positioned at fixed points and have at least two patrolling groups. When at the Captain's residence, they maintain a similar watch. When going places such as local food or shopping establishments, you have a "security blanket" of no less than five agents around you at all times."

Shinji, for what he thought was the five millionth time, stared at Rei in shock. He had a security force? He had bodyguards? Where the hell had they been?

"If we have bodyguards, why did I get beat up? Why didn't they stop it? Isn't that what they are for?" He asked, bitter undertones in his voice.

"They are instructed to interfere as little as needed. If you have cried out for them, they would have stopped it. If he had continued his assault, they would have halted him, by force if needed."

Shinji mulled that over. _Wait a minute..._ "Ayanami?"

"Yes?"

"If they would have halted it, why did you stop him? Why didn't you have them do it?"

She stared at him. _He knows! He knows! What do I say... what do I say... _"I was not aware of what was occurring. I merely was looking for you, and happened to cough as I left the building." _Lame! LAME! Is that the best I can come up with?_

_Oh. She didn't know. She didn't stop him on purpose. Wait..._ "What did you want? Why were you looking for me?"

Rei's eyes widened as she realized she had painted herself into a corner. _He truly is a master at this; he surely is the Commander's son._ She was rescued from having to answer as her cell phone began to chime. Fishing it out of her bag, she looked at the message. She wasn't sure if it was appropriate to be glad that the Enemy was approaching, but she was relived to have an out. "There's an Angel Alert. We need to go to Headquarters. I won't say anything Ikari."

As they stood up, a black suited, sunglasses wearing man walked out of an alley. "Let's go, children. We have a car waiting."


	6. Chapter 6

The air was dusty and stale. It was hot, and no-one had bathed in days. Absently pushing his glasses further up his nose, Gendo waited as his guide talked to the ancient digger on the side of the road. Apparently, after his agent here and sent the message to him in Tokyo-3, he had disappeared into the ruins and hadn't come out since. He sent the local workers back and forth between the dig and their encampment to obtain food and water, as well as batteries and fuel.

At long last the guide turned to the Commander, waving the elderly man along. "Sir, the director of the dig is at the bottom of the ruins, and awaits you there." He fidgeted nervously. This simple expedition was rapidly becoming more than the had signed on for. Who showed up looking for a guide across a wasteland to reach a well known archeological dig when they had their own airstrip? Especially when the man paying him was paying enough to hire his own aircraft.

Gendo watched the local guide. It was clear that more had been said. "What else did he say? Is there trouble with the dig?" He knew well that there was no such trouble, at least, any official trouble with the dig.

"It's nothing sir. Just, old superstitions. He says that this is an unholy place, full of evil and wickedness. That we should not be here, that we should leave the evil where it lies. He says that this valley's curse has claimed many lives and souls in the past."

"Foolishness. If we should not be here, if this dig should be stopped, then why is he here, digging for us?" Gendo Ikari was not known for making small talk with his underlings, but he knew that if his guide decided to high-tail it out of the ruins, getting back out unnoticed by SEELE's agents was going to be difficult.

The guide's face brightened. "Exactly, Senor! If this is such a evil place, why is he here helping?" Cheered up immensely, his troubles banished by this seemingly bullet proof logic, he tapped out a cigarete and lit it. "Shall we be on our way then, Senor?"

"Yes. I need to speak to Dr. Aberness."

It amused Gendo to no end that the valley and the city that had been constructed here in old were indeed home to a most definite power of destruction, an incomprehensible horror from beyond time and the stars. The feathered serpent god of the Aztecs was no Angel, however. If it was he would have had financed a terrorist strike on the site via revolutionists in order to set off a "stolen" N2 warhead. The time would come, eventually to deal with this threat, but Gendo Ikari had larger issues at hand to deal with, namely why one Dr. Henry Aberness wanted to meet with him.

Dr. Henry Aberness was a dedicated archeologist and historian, and had been devastated with Second Impact had thrown the world into disarray, plunging sites and digs under tidal waves, and then later, when others became war-zones in the Impact Wars. In all the turmoil, it seemed that no-one was interested in the past. So when he had been approached by an anonymous benefactor to begin new digs at several points across the globe, he jumped at it, but also did some digging on his own. Who, in this day and age, had such money? Why was it being used for this, rather than being used to help rebuild the world? He was dedicated, yes, but he was not naive, or stupid. Someone had another goal, and he did not like being used.

His breakthrough had come far away from the desert lands of the Yucatan in Central America, on the other side of the world. His dig had found texts akin to the so called Dead Sea Scrolls. When they had been "lost" when revolutionaries hit the caravan taking them to be mailed off to a lab to be tested, he knew then that someone had been looking for them.

The world of Acedamiea is not unlike the world of spies. Everyone has contacts, and everyone seems to know each other. Dr. Aberness's contacts had finally come through for him, and he had the name of the man who had funded his digs.

This man was a powerful man, highly placed in the U.N., sitting on several advisory boards. A man with no history of even a passing interest in archeology. Dr. Aberness was at a loss for what to do, when his confidant mentioned that there were others interested in such relics. Through several indirect methods, word had reached Gendo Ikari's ear that someone connected with the "Second Dead Sea Scroll Find" wanted to talk to him.

It had been a long, hard journey to get here, traveling as to avoid the prying eyes and ears of SEELE. He knew that Dr. Aberness was working on a SEELE funded dig, but for him to find a way via an extremely round about way to contact him, meant that he didn't want SEELE to know they were meeting, or even had opened lines of contact.

Fortunately for both of them, Gendo made several trips to seemingly nowhere locations each year at random times, dropping off all grids, just to further obfuscate his true designs and further the air of mystery that surrounded him. It also allowed him to meet secretly with people if needed, in cases such as this.

Another guide appeared at the entryway into the deepest tunnels of the dig, waving to them.

Leaving his Section 2 escorts to wait just inside the entryway, out of sight of the rest of the workers, Gendo made his way down into the earth following the guides.

Einz, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato glanced at Lt. Ibuki. "What was that Maya?" She queried the mousy tech, moving her eyes back to the main monitor.

Lt. Maya Ibuki stole a glance at the other techs, who shrugged back at her. "I said that his synch ratio is showing odd fluctuations; it's not settling down on a steady rate."

Moving closer to look at the synchronization graph display, Misato watched as Shinji's synch ratio hung around the mid 30's, bumping up and dropping a few points. "Will it keep him from being able to pilot?"

"N..no, but it will make controlling the Evangelion harder. A steady ratio is necessary for-"

Misato cut her off absently. "Keeping fine control of the unit. Right." Opening a comm channel to the purple behemoth, she noted that Shinji had set the Evangelion to display sound only. _That's odd..._ "Shinji, is everything OK? Your synch ratio is fluctuating. You'll be alright, just remember your training. You've done the hardest part, the second time is always easier."

Hyuga shot the Captain a questioning look. Noticing his gaze, she covered the mike. "The hardest time to open fire and kill the enemy is the first time. Once you're past that mental block, it just gets easier. The Eva is just a massive, specialized tank, after all."

As positive and upbeat as she sounded, she felt horrible for saying it though. _The first time you kill is the hardest. It just keeps getting easier to kill after that. What are we doing to these kids? Adults don't even always get over it. _As bad as she felt about putting Shinji through this, and as much as she wished she could take his place, she knew that right now Shinji was the only one who could. Which meant that it was her responsibility to make sure that it happened.

"I'm... I'm OK, Captain." His voice hitched a little, but his synch rate seemed to settle out, even though it was lower than his normal harmonics tests. Which was only to be expected after all, as this was going to be a real battle.

Misato turned to the main screen again, watching the incoming insectoid Angel, still making it's way into the city, not using the appendages tucked underneath it to move, but floating along. "Launch the Evangelion!" She cried, her eyes narrowed. _Let us win, oh God, please let us win. We don't need the Commander here to watch over us. We'll kill it and have the place cleaned up before he even gets back... from where ever it is he's gone off to._

Misato, intent on the operation at hand, did not notice Rei slip into the command center, up on the Commander's platform, high above the rest of the main floors. She stood off the side, opposite of where the Sub-Commander normally stood. She had not changed into her plug-suit, as her arm was still bandaged up, also Unit-00 was still currently encased from the waist down in bakealite and it was doubtful that in an emergency that would necessitate her activating the Evangelion that she would be able to do so.

Denied her purpose today, she decided to content herself with gathering data as first hand as she possibly could in the current circumstance, especially seeing as she could hide up here and observe with no one noticing or commanding her to wait in the locker room. Not wishing to interfere with the running of the operation, and wishing to remain unnoticed, and thus not affecting that which she observed, she remaind hidden on the tower. She turned to view-screen, observing the Angel, and listening to the Captain's briefing to Pilot Ikari.

"OK, Shinji. You'll come up inside one of the false buildings. Exit, and button-hook left. The Angel will be right in your sights. Just do it like you've practiced!

"Roger." Shinji's voice, Rei noted, was devoid of any enthusiasm or anticipation of engaging the Enemy. _Is Pilot Ikari always like this? Observed behavior patterns in school neither overly support or discredit this. He is usually... somewhat more animated than this, or perhaps less... apathetic. This is an event of major importance. The Future and Fate of Mankind hinge on these battles. Does Pilot Ikari not realize this?_

_Perhaps he does not care about the Future and Fate. Mankind, at the hands of student Suzahara has not particularly endeared itself to him. It also appears that he has not been fully or properly briefed on the resources afforded him if he was unaware of his Section 2 escort. If he is realizing this, he perhaps thinks that mankind is conspiring against him, and as such is not worthy of his __guardianship. _

_Would Pilot Ikari allow himself to be injured and/or killed in order to prove a point?_ Rei pondered this for a moment; it was all the time she needed to apply everything she knew about him to the question. _Commander Ikari would not hesitate to do such a thing if it fit into his scenario. Pilot Ikari no doubt would as well. What then, should be done to properly motivate him to fight the Angel? If he no longer cares about not becoming extinct via Third Impact, that makes properly motivating him as major issue. The dead do not care for the affairs or trappings of the living. _

While Rei was mulling over that mental puzzle, Shinji was preparing to engage the Angel once the catapult delivered him to the surface, and dealing with the LCL in the plug. Being submerged in LCL help with the connection between Pilot and Chariot, and acted as a shock absorber, but it also did nothing good for his broken nose, which now began to bleed freely once more. Despite this, and the multiple G-forces pulling at him, his mind wandered to the beating he had received and Rei's odd behavior. _She only tried cleaning up and bandaging me because she felt obligated because of what I did on that catwalk. She doesn't care. Nobody does. Section 2 didn't even stop that guy from breaking my nose, or my ribs! Nobody even told me they were even around! What else are they not telling me?_ The time for introspection and speculation had come to an end, however, for he had reached the top of the catapult, and the false side of the skyscraper dropped and the final locks released, and he eased of the platform. Readying his pallet rifle, he spun around the left side, his eyes widening as he spotted the insectoid enemy, and pulled the switch once the Angel was centered in the electronic sight. It was different from the rifle he had shot with Lt. Shigeru at the range, as they had used what the long haired tech called "iron sights". The triggers were the same, however, and as he pulled the switch in the Entry Plug, the pallet rifle spat car sized shells at the Angel. Smoke and debris billowed up, and Shinji lost sight of the Angel. _Where is it? Is it down?_ He heard Miss Misato's voice yelling at him from the comm line. He paused, trying to catch what she was saying, his head throbbing from both the beating and synchronization. He caught sight of the electric pink of the tentacles of the beast, and jumped back awkwardly, his rifle coming apart in his hands. He made to flee, but was tossed backwards through the building behind him, the tower of steel and glass crashing down on him, doing absolutely nothing helpful for his head, which now felt like it was on fire, in addition to the throbbing.

Of course, the fact that Unit-01's head **was** on fire probably had something to do with that.

On a hilltop, not very far from the outer edge of Tokyo-3's city limits, Kensuke Aida watched the debacle through the viewfinder of his camera. His friend, Toji Suzahara stood next to him, mouth agape as he watched the gigantic figures fighting. "This guy sucks!" He finally yelled in disbelief.

Einz, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Toji and Kensuke sat in the shelter, lounging on one of the provided mats while they waited out the battle. Kensuke mumbled something under his breath about NERV censorship of the press, as all wireless connections showed only a sideshow of "soothing" images, with a message super imposed over them about how all communication lines and signals were restricted during the Alert due to interference with the electronics of NERV weaponry.

Deciding that he wasn't that interested in the series of kittens that was currently being shown, he shut the camera's wireless connection down. "You know, Toji, you really messed that Ikari kid up. I mean, he was spitting up a lot of blood. You probably broke his nose too." He watched his friend sitting across the mat. "If he hadn't kept talking about it, I would have doubted that he even was the pilot. I mean, where was his security? Why didn't he at lease try to defend himself? He just, I dunno... took it. Even after you got nasty." He glanced around at the others around them, keeping his voice low, as not to be overheard. "We need to talk. Privately."

Toji leveled as stare at his nerdy friend. "Are you being serious?" Watching him nod, Toji sighed. "Alright." Putting his shoes back on, he balled up a piece of paper from his bag and chucked it at Hikari, lightly hitting her in the back of the head.

Flushing red, she spun around from the conversation she had been having with her.. more dignified friends, ready to chew whomever was throwing things in the shelter out. Toji cut her off before she got started, pushing Ken along in front of him. "Hey Class Rep, we're going to the can!"

Choking on a strangled response, she watched as they left the main shelter room. She narrowed her eyes at their retreating backs. She'd have something for them once they got back.

Toji folded his arms, not believing the insanity being spewed by his long time compatriot. "We are not going up to the surface to watch the robot slug it out with a giant monster. Going out while a war's going on is how people get hurt or killed. How do you think my sis got hurt? She was mucking around outside a shelter. Like hell I'm going out there with you."

Ken stared in open disbelief at what he just heard. "WHAT? You beat the living daylights out of the pilot and it wasn't totally his fault? Why was she outside the shelter? This is great. We're gonna be so screwed after all this is over. He's gonna press charges, and NERV security's gonna pick us up and kill us. I mean, what the hell?"

Toji's eyes widened as the potential long term consequences of his actions suddenly popped into his head. "Oh **shit**. Wait, no one would believe him. Who would beat up a pilot?"

Ken shook his head. "Dude, you broke his nose. His face was all tore up, and you can't tell me you didn't break something when you were kicking him. That's not something you just let go."

"What...what about you? You just stood there and watched! Oh man..."

"And even if he doesn't say anything about it, for whatever reason, what about Rei? She walked in on it! She's weird, but she'll definitely say something."

"Maybe we can talk to her. Convince her not to say anything." Toji was grasping at straws now, desperate to escape what dark fate was now in store for him.

"Dude, that sounds like a bad idea. Besides, I don't think I saw her with the others."

"Duh, she doesn't have any friends." Toji wasn't sure why Ken was being so thick right now, when their very lives depended on them thinking of a way out of their current predicament.

"No, I mean that I don't think I saw her in the shelter at all! She's all banged up and probably can't move around that well. Maybe she fell behind in the evacuation and got locked out?"

Toji paled at the thought of the fragile looking bandaged up girl trapped on the outside in the middle of a war. A war where the pilot was a careless moron who smashed up his own city. "We've got to rescue her! If she's stuck up there, there's no telling what might happen to her!"

Ken nodded. If they managed to get her to safety, she might just stay silent out of gratitude, at least until they could come up with some sort of plausible explanation. Besides, she might be a cold, distant weirdo, but that was no reason to leave her to die. Not to them, at any rate.

Evangelion Unit-01 stumbled around downtown Tokyo-3, reeling like a dazed man, trying to both beat at the flames burning on it's head and clutch it's head in agony at the same time. From their vantage point at the entryway to the shelter, the young boys watched as the giant came into contact with the Angel once more.

"This guy SUCKS!" Toji shouted again. "Look at him! He's not even fighting back!"

Kensuke lowered the camera. "Maybe you knocked him around a little too much man. I don't think it's be easy to try to fight with broken ribs or bones."

"Shut up! It's not my fault! C'mon, let's just find Ayanami and get the hell back down into the shelter." Kensuke nodded, but still paused, filming the scene below once more. He was torn between his love of military equipment and photography and the need to find the lost injured girl. Toji made the choice for him, however, pushing him down the path before him.

They made their way down, calling out for Ayanami, Kensuke still filming the fight, such as it was, with the robot being tossed around. "C'mon, guy, get it together!" Ken muttered under his breath.

Almost as if he had been heard, he watched, stupefied as the robot grabbed a rifle **out of a building** and opened up on the Angel. "That's it! Yeah!" He squinted at the rifle, and the shells falling to the side. "Dude, Toji! Look at the size of the rounds! They've got to be the size of a truck!"

Toji halted, if only to smack Ken, but watched the shells ejecting from the rifle. They were huge. And yet, from what he could tell, they weren't doing anything to the Angel.

As suddenly as the pilot seemed to get his act together to fight back, he lost it all again, as the electric whips swung out and caught the power cable plugged into the back of the robot, and then **tossed** the robot high up into the sky. The boys stared in horror, tracing the arc down... right onto them!

Shinji sat for a moment in shock, stunned by the impact, and then as he caught motion on the screen in the corner of his eye. The sensors following his eye movement focused and magnified the faces of the boys on his screens. It was the guys from class! The ones who had beat him up!

Misato stared at the display that showed the Pilot's POV. "Who the FUCK are those kids?" She screamed, pointing at the screen. "What are they even doing out of the shelter?"

Rei was also staring at the displays. This was... oddly coincidental. What was the likelihood of the two boys who had beaten Pilot Ikari being out of the shelter, running around when an Angel fight was going on?

Shinji looked back up in time to catch the Angel's tentacles in his hands, the crackling energy starting the melt the armor on the hands and cook the flesh beneath. He tried to move around as little as possible, trying to watch both the boys and the angel.

"Shinji!" Misato's voice cut through the haze of battle for some reason, cutting through the pounding of his heartbeat, strong in his ears. "Hold the Evangelion on it's current commands, eject the plug, and get them in it. Retreat to the nearest sub section, and we'll regroup. You've got 3 minutes left of power."

"Roger!" His voice was hoarse, even though he hadn't screamed as much this time around.

Dr. Akagi was not so accepting of the Captain's orders however. "What makes you think that you can put two civilians in the entry plug?"

Misato glared at her college friend. "I'm authorizing it. We need to get them out of the way so he can maneuver. METTT-C, Rits. Besides, they won't be in the plug that long." She turned back to the screens. "What's the current power level?"

Hyuga spoke up, his fingers flying over his keyboard. "He's got 2 minutes left. Plug is reinserted, coming on line now!" Even as he spoke however, a new alarm went off. The synchronization score had tanked.

Maya cried out to the rest of the crew, desperation in her voice. "There's noise in the plug! It's from the foreign bodies! He won't be able to fight!"

"He's not supposed to fight, he needs to retreat! Shinji, retreat! Get out of there!"

Inside the entry plug, which was filled with some.. liquid that stank of blood, that they told them to breath, of all things, Toji and Kensuke could see nothing but blank gray walls, the chair and harness of the plug, and the Pilot. They could hear people shouting, but they couldn't see any speakers.

"Hey, new guy! They're telling you to retreat! C'mon, let's go! What are you waiting for?" Toji's voice began to grow more and more frantic as the kid sat, slumped in the seat, staring at the wall of the tube. Then he began to scream, of rage and mindless anger. The entry plug shook, and Toji's eyes widened as he traced a thin tendril of red in the liquid up to the boy's nose. The light in the plug turned red, and he felt as if someone was stabbing him in gut. He clutched his head as images flashed before his eyes, the nondescript tube replaced with a full on view of the Angel, and he watched with a weird sort of out of body sensation as the movements of Ikari moved his body and view, thrusting a knife deep into the body of the Angel. Ikari never stopped screaming, mindlessly as he tore chunks of meat from the Angel's body. From somewhere, he wasn't sure where, Toji got the idea of a clock running down to zero. Just as this mental countdown ceased, the Angel stopped struggling. The images stopped assailing Toji and Kensuke's minds, and they sat there, clutching onto the sides of the seat. Ikari had ceased screaming, and now sat, hunched over, clutching his head and side, making odd gurgling sounds.

It would not be until much later, while in solitary quarantine, that Toji realized that Ikari had been crying.

Einz, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato paced back and forth in the hallway, waiting for Ritsuko to give Shinji a clear bill of health so she could go in and give him a piece of her mind. _He had to know that he couldn't just disregard her orders on the battlefield. He might have gotten lucky today, but what about next time?_ She stopped as she watched Rei exit the elevator. _What was that girl up to? She hadn't waited in the locker room like she should have, but had been hanging out in the control room. If she hadn't picked the out of the way location of the Commander's tower, I would have ordered her back to the locker room. _Misato smirked. _Not that the locker room is very interesting, or that she would have been any use in an actual emergency. She probably just wanted to watch the action firsthand instead of getting the tapes later. But what is she doing down here? _The Captain's eyebrow raised questioning. "Ayanami? What are you doing down here?"

Rei stared at the Captain for a moment before answering. It wasn't long enough of a pause to be rude, just enough to be odd, if Rei had been anyone else. Misato had gotten the rundown from her friend about some of the girl's oddities. "I came down to see about Pilot Ikari's injuries."

"Ritsuko is inside with him." Misato jerked her head at the door, missing the barest narrowing of Rei's eyes at this information. "She should be out soon enough."

As if mentioning her had summoned her, Dr. Ritsuko Akagi in fact exited the boy's hospital room. "Well, he'll live. He's got some broken bones, a lot of bruising, but he shows no signs of mental contamination at the moment." She turned to the Captain. "He seems to be extremely disconnected from things right now, mostly due to the painkillers and adrenaline let-down. You might not get the reaction you want when you discipline him. Yell at him, if you want, but don't get frustrated at him and shake him. He's got a broken nose, and two broken ribs. His synch ratio jumped up high enough at the end for him to develop sympathetic injuries."

Misato's eyes widened. "What caused it? Do you think it was because of the other boys being in the entry plug with him? They both reported sensations similar to synchronization and activation. Can multiple people pilot the Evangelions at one time?"

Dr. Akagi sighed, tucking her clipboard under an arm. "It might be possible, but not viable. They didn't get a full connection, it's most likely signal "spill-over" into their minds. The pilots would have to be in synch with each other as much as with the Evangelion in order for any real benefit to be obtained. Adding more variables to the equation wouldn't be advisable."

"Hmmm. When will the boys be released from quarantine? They've already been debriefed by the bridge bunnies, and we've got their dispositions on tape."

"If they haven't developed signs of contamination by now, they'll be OK. I'll contact Section 2 and have them delivered home. What were they doing out of the shelters anyway?"

Misato laughed, and pointed at Rei. "They were looking for Ayanami, of all things. They had noticed that she wasn't with the others in the shelter, and were worried about her. We told them later that she had been found in another shelter." She turned to the shocked and silent girl. "If anyone asks, you were in Shelter V-101A. They seemed to be very concerned about you, Rei."

Rei merely nodded at this information. _Were they truly looking for me? Why? They have never shown interest in me before, apart from the initial interest when meeting a new person. It must be connected with their treatment of Pilot Ikari. Perhaps they wish to purchase my silence? But then, if I was outside of the shelter during the attack, it would have been to their advantage, as I could have been killed accidentally. Research will be needed to settle this. _"I will... talk to them in school." Having satisfied herself that the true nature of Pilot Ikari's injuries would be accepted as injuries from the battle, she turned and left.

Both adults watched her leave, entering the same elevator she had arrived in. Ritsuko spoke up first. "What was she even doing down here?"

Misato grinned. "She wanted to check up on Shinji. I think she's got a crush on him. He did rescue her from having to pilot Unit-01 when he got here. And don't forget the way he held her when she got knocked off the gurney." Her happy face evaporated as she looked at the door to Shinji's room. "I wonder why she left though? Why not actually **see** him?"

Ritsuko shook her head. "I doubt she wants to see him all banged up, high on pain killers, and being yelled at by you for disobeying orders. She places a lot in obeying orders."

Mistao's devious grin reappeared. "Well, she's disobeyed at least one order today." Her smile deepening at the doctor's confused look, she continued. "Instead of hanging out in the locker room like she's supposed to, she snuck into the control room and watched the battle from the commander's tower.

Ritsuko was shocked. "You're kidding me! Rei did **that**? Really? That's... so out of character for her to be that interested in something." She leaned up against the wall, looking at the elevator that Rei had disappeared into."

Misato shook her head. "Something... or someone?" She sighed, all business now, shifting her weight to her other leg. "Rits, what am I going to do with him? He can't just disobey orders like that. Whether he likes it or not, he's a soldier now, fighting for all mankind. He's got responsibility and can't just do what he pleases. The Evangelion is a war-machine, not some toy for him to play with."

Ritsuko clapped a sympathetic hand on Misato's shoulder. "Just go in and explain it to him that way. He got press-ganged into this, remember? None of us were very nice to him that day. He was blackmailed into it, and we all helped. No matter what else we do for him, that fact remains. Rei's probably been the only person who can be said to have been truly nice to him, and I doubt that they've even talked to each other. Yes, he can't do what he did anymore, but remember that this has all been dumped on him."

"Hey, I've been nice to him! I've even taken him into my home!" Misato protested, poking Ritsuko.

"Well, whatever you're going to do, you might as well do it before he falls asleep, and get it over with. He's been expecting it. And don't forget that you'll need to contact the Commander and let him know that an Angel attacked." Smiling at Misato's fallen and horrified face, she started down the hall to the elevators herself.

Shaking her head, Misato groaned. "Well, I might as well get this over with."


	7. Chapter 7

Class seemed to drag on forever and forever. Toji and Kensuke sat in their seats, paying rapt attention to everything that was going on, instead of giving into the normal distractions of sleep, camera manuals and chatting on the schools computer system. Hikari was going to ask them about their odd behavior at lunch, but they disappeared before she could catch them and showed up only right before class was about to resume, not giving her a chance to find out what was going on.

Both boys had been watching Rei during lunch, hiding up on the roof as she ate her lunch under one of the trees in the courtyard. They had tried to catch her alone to talk to her, but while she never seemed to interact with anyone, she was never not within earshot of somebody else, which would make the conversation the boys wished to have.. troublesome, to say the least. Now, they waited for the end of the day, and then they could follow her home, and talk to her on the way. They knew that she lived in the eastern district, and wasn't neighbors with any of the other students. She seemed to be ignoring them completely, not even looking at them during class. She didn't even look towards the empty seat that Shinji normally sat in. She just stared out the window, resting her head on the arm not in a sling.

_Students Aida and Suzahara seem to be unnaturally attentive today. Indeed, they have kept a close eye on my movements and on me throughout the span of class and lunch. _Rei, being Rei, had noticed the abrupt change in behavior in the two boys, and had kept and eye on them during lunch, observing their furtive movements up on the roof. _Captain Katsuragi had said that the reason they had left the safety of the shelter was because I was not present, and that they were worried that since I was injured, I had not been able to get to such safety. While entirely within the realm of possibility, I doubt that their concern was entirely altruistic. Perhaps they wish find out if I will inform the authorities that I witnessed them beating Pilot Ikari. _

Rei, despite telling the Captain that she would speak them during class to allay their fears about being trapped on the surface outside of a shelter during the Angel Attack, had not yet deemed it necessary to talk to them. She wanted to observe their actions towards her and Pilot Ikari. Unfortunately for her, Pilot Ikari had not come to class today. Instead, he was sitting in the brig at Nerv Central, spending some time in isolation as a paltry penance for disobeying orders.

Rei checked the time display on her computer against her mental count. Once again, she matched the clock's opinion on the time. 16:45. _Ikari should have been released by now. I wonder if he will make an appearance tomorrow, or if he will stay at home to recuperate. The last time that I had broken ribs, I remained at home for one week to allow them time to heal to the point that I felt no danger of further stress on the injury before returning to class. _Rei felt a minor irritation at the idea of not being able to observe Shinji and the other's interactions for such a time. _Is this irritation I feel solely due to this? Or is there something else at play here? I have not yet been able to conduct further research on him. He is still largely an unknown to me. SHE said that his nose was broken. I wonder how this has changed his appearance. Some reading materials suggest that a previously broken nose lends a "rakish air" to the person's appearance. Initial observation does not suggest that having one's nose broken leading to a more dashing appearance. He seemed to be extremely bloody and in pain. Perhaps I should check on the __Penicillium chrysogenum colony in my lab. I haven't checked on in for a while. I may have enough to introduce it into the LCL sample now. It will be interesting to see how the two interact. The Staphylococcus aureus spread like wildfire once introduced into the LCL. Will it be strong enough to fight off the mold?_

The school bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. After the class paid their respect to the teacher, Rei collected her things and made her way to the main entrance, thinking about her mold and bacterium collections. Thus it came as a bit of a surprise that she was cornered by both Suzahara and Aida, without anyone else around. _My Section 2 escort is downstairs. If I should fail to make an appearance, they will investigate. I can outrun Student Aida, but not Student Suzahara._

_Should he-_

"Ayanami, are you OK?" Toji interrupted her mental calculations, breaking the silence first. "When you didn't show up in the shelter, we were worried that you weren't able to get to safety."

She glanced at him, shifting her weight to one side slightly in order to make a sudden sprint for freedom. "I managed to obtain shelter in Safety Shelter V-101A, not far from here. You did not need to leave your shelter in search of me."

Toji snorted. "Yeah, we did. You weren't with the rest of the group. The last we saw of you, you were with the new kid. We needed to be sure you didn't end up hurt." He shifted to one side, his eyes looking at the ground as he mentioned Shinji.

_Interesting. He seems to not only be telling the truth of the nature of his concern for me, at least in part, but he also seems to be uneasy at mentioning Ikari. _"His security escort showed up for him, and deposited me at the shelter on the way to their base." She saw both the boys looking uneasy now.

Aida spoke up now, while Toji stared at the ground. "How.. how badly hurt was he?"

_They are concerned about his injuries. They had to know that Student Suzahara injured him at the fight, and they were present in the Entry Plug during the last of the fight. They know he was badly hurt, but are asking me, despite them having seen him later than I. Will they reveal that they were present there?_

"He has a broken nose, and I suspect that at least one of his ribs was fractured during... your altercation with him. I have not seen him after we were separated that afternoon, and he was not in class today. Perhaps he was hospitalized after the battle with the Angel?" She watched their faces closely, and was rewarded with twin displays of guilt.

Toji spoke up again. "We saw him during the fight. We can't saw much about it... but it was bad. The way he pilots the robot is... weird. It's like whatever happens to it happens to him." While he was talking, he touched his side, not noticing that he was rubbing over the spot where the energized tentacles had pierced the Evangelion. Aida knocked his classmate's hand back down.

"We... we just wanted to know if you knew how to get in touch with him."

Rei blinked. "Why would I know such a thing?"

"Well, you seemed to be really friendly with him. I mean, uh.." He trailed off, unable to articulate what he was thinking in a way that wasn't sure to make her mad at them.

Kensuke leapt to the rescue, being much better with words than Toji. "What we're trying to say, is that you seem to be on better terms with him than anyone else."

Rei blinked again. _Is my interest in Ikari that obvious to others? How can I use this? _"Well... I could give you his phone number. But you can't tell him you got it from me."

Aida looked back at the ground briefly, before speaking again. "Did you tell anyone what happened? Please, we're sorry! It won't ever happen again!"

_Very interesting. _"He asked me not to-" She was cut off by a strangled shout from behind the two boys. Shinji stood in the open door to the stairwell, his face going red, and glaring at them. His eyes were ringed with dark purple bruises, and his nose was slightly off kilter. An ugly yellow and purple bruise marred one side of his face, running from the base of his jaw up into his hair. Both arms were covered in bruises, sympathetic injuries from the Angel battle, and his eyes were bloodshot.

_He does seem... more dashing... in a roguish way. Why is he here? _

All three students stared at the boy as he limped towards them, his body quivering in rage, his arms held at his sides, fists clenched. "You beat me up, and I don't tell any one. I ask her not to tell anyone. If she had, you'd be in jail right now! I rescue! You! I saved you! Even after beating me, I save you and don't tell anyone. I managed to hide everything from them, they think it's all from the fight. And now what! It's not enough? You're going to beat Ayanami up? What'd she do to you? She's already hurt! She's in bandages! No! You can't hurt her! You won't hurt her!" Shinji was yelling now, growling at them, barely able to talk.

All three started to back up, and Toji put his hands up in the air, trying to placate Shinji. "No, no, man, it's not that... We were just-"

What ever he was about to say was lost at Ikari threw himself at the jock, headbutting him. Both went down, with Ikari screaming at him incoherently for the most part, fists flying. Both Rei and Kensuke stared at the two, and then Kensuke went to help Toji as the other boy screamed for his help, for him to do **something** to get the crazed pilot off of him.

For his troubles, Aida got punched in the groin, and went tumbling to the ground, tears streaming from his face.

"You can't hurt her! You can't hurt her! I won't let you!" Ikari was screaming at them, as suited Section 2 men poured into the hall way, hauling him off the considerably bloody Toji.

"Jeez, kid, calm down. We're not going to cover for you if you go beating him into a paste." One of them said, standing in between the fighters. He cocked his head at the boy, squatting down to eye level. "I think you've paid him back, OK? I think he gets the picture." He turned and looked at the prostrate form of Toji Suzahara. "Right, Mr. Suzahara? You're not going to hurt Miss Ayanami over there, right?" He lowered his sunglasses with a finger, letting the boy see his eyes.

"Right, yes sir! It was just a misunderstanding! We'd never think about it!" Toji moved so that he was kneeling on both legs before the restrained pilot. "Ikari, please, forgive me. I shouldn't have hit you then, and I'm sorry."

Shinji, breathing hard, and wincing because of his ribs, looked away. "It's.. OK. I wasn't going to tell anyone about it. I... I... I was just worried about Ayanami."

Toji looked up as the Section 2 men let Shinji go. "Man, I owe you my life. You saved us out there, and we saw..." He shot a glance at the blue haired girl, standing in silent shock behind him, before continuing. "-what it was like for you. If anyone tries what I did to you again, I'll knock them straight." Behind their sunglasses, all of the Section 2 men rolled their eyes. "And if anyone tries anything like that with Ayanami, I'll do the same."

Shinji gaped at the boy. "What? Uh... you don't have to do that.."

"Yeah I do. It's a matter of honor now for me." He smiled through split lips, offering his hand to Shinji. "I think we got off on the wrong foot. I'm Toji Suzahara. Pleased to meet you."

Tentatively smiling, Shinji shook his hand. "I'm Shinji Ikari."

Toji stood up, helping Kensuke to his feet. "Well, I guess we'll see you in class tomorrow, right?"

"Uh, yeah. I'll be here."

Toji waved goodbye, and the two limped off. The head of the Section 2 escorts shook his head at Ikari. "You're crazy kid. Miss Ayanami wasn't in danger at all."

Suddenly realizing that Rei was standing three feet away from him throughout the entire thing, Shinji's eyes went wide, and started blushing furiously, although it was hard to tell under the bruising. "Ayanami! Uh..umm"

Rei stared at him, in shock, her eyes also widened. _You can't hurt her? You won't hurt her? I won't let you? He seems very... protective of me. Extremely protective. He must have been worried all day to come here to find me. He jumped to the most dire conclusion of seeing us standing there like that. Is this protectiveness the reason why he decided to pilot in the first battle? Is it because of me? _

"Ikari, why did you attack them? They were just asking about if I managed to get to a shelter before the fight started. They were concerned for my safety as they did not see me in the shelter with the rest of the class."

Shinji opened his mouth in shock, and then closed it. "That's why they were out there?"

"Apparently so. You are not answering me again. Why did you attack them?" She walked over to him, removing another part of her bandages to wipe blood off of his face. She felt his skin grow extremely warm under her fingers, but he made no move to push her away.

"Um.. uh.. I thought they were threatening you to make sure you wouldn't tell on them. I... kinda snapped."

Pocketing the bandage, she clasped her hands in front of her. "Why.. Why did you pilot the Evangelion only after seeing my condition?"

His eyes grew wider still, something she thought would have been impossible. "I couldn't let you go out to die. You're too hurt to even think about piloting the Evangelion!"

_Commander Ikari knew that he would react this way! That's why he suggested I speak to him about it directly. I was.. emotional blackmail. I wasn't ever meant to pilot that day. The Commander is truly a master of the Science of understanding and manipulating people and events. What other hidden agendas and meanings are there to everything? If I am to unravel them I must do massive amounts of research into that._

"Ayanami? Is everything OK?" Shinji sweated, thinking that he had offended her in someway.

She cleared her throat. "Everything is fine, Ikari. I am... flattered that you would be so protective of someone you haven't meet or known for very long."

Shinji rubbed the back of his head nervously, still blushing. "Yeah.." _Oh my god I sound like a moron... what do I say to something like that?"_

"Why did you come to school today? You had to have know that you would not make it to any part of the class."

"Oh, I wanted to pick up the assignments to work on them. I wasn't allowed to do anything in solitary..."

"You are indeed coming to class tomorrow?" She looked at him, locking her crimson eyes on his blue ones.

"Yeah..."

"Then I will see you tomorrow, Ikari." She scooped up her bag from the floor and left, leaving Shinji standing in the hallway by himself.

"What happened?" He wondered out loud.

His Section 2 escort leader poked his head out of the classroom, holding a stack of papers. "She likes you kid, and ran off home to stare at her wall and think about it. He handed the papers to Shinji.

"I... what?"

Einz, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Gendo paused the recording of the school security camera feed. He glanced at Kozo, who was sitting with his feet propped up on the desk. "I told you she would be a good focus for him. Look at that. Injured, thinking nothing of himself, he throws himself into battle to save her. When we start Third Impact he is going to break the universe to get at her. If you had any doubts before, this should settle them." He grabbed a pair of glasses from a drawer, along with a bottle of scotch.

Kozo, for his part, wasn't entirely assured. "We still need to get to the point where we can trigger Third Impact. Your son's enthusiasm for Rei's safety and well-being won't do us any good if one of the Angels triggers it, or if SEELE triggers it instead of us. We'll be all dressed up with no place to go at that point."

"We'll be fine. I got a major piece of the puzzle on my trip."

"What was that all about, anyway? He didn't have another relic from the second set of scrolls did he?"

Gendo smiled, sipping the scotch before answering. "Something even better. I know the name of SEELE 04." His smile grew as Kozo dropped his glass.

"You know the name of SEELE 04."

"I know the name of SEELE 04."

"We know the name of one of the most powerful, secretive men in the world's history, one of the real Illuminati, one of the shadow puppet masters, who triggered Second Impact, who want to be ascended to godhood."

"Yes. Yes we do."

"We are going to win this, aren't we. We're actually going to win. With that name, we'll be able to get the names of the other ten. They won't be able to hide behind their pawns on the Instrumentality Committee any longer. When do we begin to move?"

"We start once we receive ADAM and the Lance. One of my agents is already making preparations to steal Him from their laboratories. We have scouts combing the wreckage of Antarctica for the Lance. Once we have both, we will begin to move. Once we've disposed of the final Angel, we will remove them from play, and trigger it on our terms."

"Shinji tries to rescue Rei, **maybe** they both escape with their lives and sanity coupled with years of therapy, you get to be with Yui for the rest of eternity, and I get to lead a fractured, betrayed mankind out of yet another living hell. Wait, why am I helping you again? It seems like you're the only one who is getting anything out of this whole affair."

Gendo shot his old professor a look. "Because all of this is sort of **your** fault, and you don't really want to be part of some hive-mind made up from all the souls on the planet?" He sipped his scotch and then grinned. "Also, you like sappy romance novels and this whole thing appeals to you."

Einz, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei stared at her wall, thinking. _Why has the Commander apparently decided to throw myself and his son together? How does this fit in with his Scenario? On the day of Third Impact, I will finally be allowed to die. What purpose does this pairing serve? What is he not telling me? How can I serve him without knowing what his aims are? Something is not right here. _She shifted so that she was lying on her back, staring at the ceiling. When she had returned home, she was so preoccupied with the mess of the situation that she didn't even care about checking on the myriad experiments she had going on in the empty apartment to the left of hers. She was too busy trying to sort out Ikari, and how he and she figured into the Commander's plans. Things definitely were not as they had been explained to her. Things were awry. She was working with faulty data, and if she disliked being bored, she **hated** working with faulty data. Faulty data ruined experiments.

Across the fortress city, Shinji likewise lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Unlike Rei, he was not thinking about how everything fit into some twisted and labyrinthine plan of his father's, he was thinking about what a certain injured, blue haired girl that he barely knew meant to him.

The Section 2 man had said nothing more about the whole thing to him as he drove Shinji home, stating that he refused to comment on the whole thing, saying that it was Shinji's mess to clean up and figure out, not his. If he needed advice on girls, he could ask his guardian. He was just a bodyguard, not his nanny. If someone was pointing a gun at him, he'd fix it. If someone was beating the crap out of him, he'd fix it. He also told him to shout out or something if someone was beating him up, not just to sit there and take it quietly.

He was attracted to her, that was for sure. She seemed to care about him, at least on some level. She did clean his face up again today. That meant something, right?

He sighed. He wished that he could talk to Miss Misato about this, but she would just tease him about it. She had said something about Rei to him earlier, right before she put him in solitary. Something about Rei being worried about him.

He sighed again. Solitary had sucked. He knew why she did it, putting him in there for the day. She had explained it. He needed to obey the commands from the Ops Director. They could keep track of the big picture, while troops in the field sometimes got "tunnel vision". At least, that's how she explained it to him. It didn't make much sense to him. He turned over, resting on his uninjured side.

_Nothing here in Tokyo-3 made any sense. After leaving him with his Uncle, no word from him for over three years, he calls him back, not to his side or home, but to a city that he's the ruler of? How does that even work? This whole place is more like it is it's own city state that happened to be in Japan. He has me pilot a giant robot that hurts me when it gets damaged, and there are giant monsters we've decided to call Angels. What is going on? And where did Rei come from? Why does she get to live by herself? Why does he talk to her and not me? Does she really like me?_

Back across town, Rei moved from her room, which was bare and empty, and walked into her bathroom. Opening the ceiling to floor cabinet, she walked through the hole in the wall into the next door apartment. This apartment, unlike hers, was locked and barred, and had a secondary wall that she had built in front of the entryway. The layout was similar to hers, except mirrored.

This apartment, however, was filled to the brim with salvaged lab equipment that Rei had dug out of storage from the labs in the Geo-Front, smuggled back here bit by bit, piece by piece. She knew that Section 2 kept an eye on her movements when she left the building, but that they either did not keep track of where in the building she was, or did not care that her movements seemed to take her outside the floor-plan of her apartment without her leaving by the front door.

She pulled the bloodied bandage from her pocket, and placed it in a petri dish, and put the dish in the refrigerator next to the other samples she had collected from Ikari previously. Moving back to the counter, she pulled over another petri dish, containing a small chunk of bloody bandage.

Dropping a tiny bit onto a slide, her put it into one of her microscopes, and leveled her gaze at the display on the computer screen.

_His blood seems to be hyper-oxygenated. Red blood cell count is very high, and he has an unusual amount of iron present. Elevated white blood cell count suggests his auto immune system is fighting off an infection. Perhaps he has a cold? _She pulled the slide from the microscope and placed a small label marked Ikari S. on it and placed it into the freezer. _Hyper-oxygenation can be explained by trace amounts of LCL remaining in the lower regions of his lungs. It would absorb oxygen much more efficiently than his alveoli would. He will also begin to benefit from long term exposure to the LCL, as it will cause his lungs to regenerate and repair damaged tissues. He will, however, lose some of his natural buoyancy. This will be offset by the greater amounts of oxygen present in his blood, which would help allow him to swim longer without tiring. Also, if the amount of LCL trapped in his lungs was greater than the amount of water, it is likely that he would not be able to drown, the LCL drawing oxygen directly from the water. Of course, any pollutants in the water would have a discomforting sensation on the tissues of the lungs and esophagus._

She pulled up another slide, similarly marked from a machine that looked like it was cobbled out of the apartment's built in microwave. She glanced at a printout that spooled out from underneath the contraption. _It appears that he is on a mild anti-depressant. This is not surprising, considering the stress put upon him in the past few weeks. _She stood there, staring at the printout, but no longer paid attention to the information it held.

_He is... he is... he is not unattractive, if apparently uninformed about the options available to him as a Pilot. He was surprised by the intervention of Section 2 today, as if he had forgotten about them. _

_I need to... talk with him, but about what? I cannot skew my data by interfering too much myself, but the idea of watching him interact with another girl is... irritating. _She glanced at the clock on the wall, noting that it agreed with her internal one, and left for her apartment.

Pouring herself a beaker of water, she downed the medicines given to her to ensure a speedy and complete recovery from the disastrous activation experiment with Unit 00.

Her medicines were mostly pain killers, but the main attraction was the gel-caps of LCL. The fluid that served as a cushion, breathing aid, and synch aid inside the Entry Plugs had a side affect of helping the body heal. When the Evangelions were not in cryo-stasis, or being worked on in open-air required situations, the secondary cages were flooded with LCL, submerging the cybernetic giants.

_I wonder if Ikari was prescribed LCL caplets to help aide in his recovery from the battles? If he has not been, perhaps he would be appreciative of me offering some of my gel-caps? I can always get more from the Commander. _

Feeling drowsy, and deciding that perhaps a discussion on the regenerative effects of consuming LCL could help provide further evidence as to the amount of interest the younger Ikari had for Science, Rei discarded her clothing and crawled into the rumpled sheets of her bed and drifted off into her dreamless sleep.

Shinji, however, was not having any luck sleeping in a dreamless state. He would toss and turn until some time after two in the morning, muttering threats to the specters in turn threatening a familiar blue haired girl.


	8. Chapter 8

Gendo looked up from his desk when Ritsuko entered the tomb-like office. She had long since ceased to be intimidated by the subtle mechanisms that were employed by the Supreme Commander of NERV to intimidate his guests. She dropped a sheath of papers off on the desk, and dug in her purse for something. He resisted the urge to quirk an eyebrow at her. He had to maintain the persona of an utterly cold tyrant even in private as to help ensure that he did not slip up when in public.

She finally found what she was looking for, a small box of darkly lacquered wood. She put it down on top of the papers and kissed his forehead impudently. "Happy birthday Commander. I'll see you tomorrow."

He grunted, moving back to reading the reports that took up the majority of his time in the office. He had so little time for actual lab-work these days. Creating Rei pretty much had been the last he had truly done. Even with all the meticulous planning and work he put into crafting his scenario and his files and files of plans and counter plans, most of it was all paperwork and making sure that things progressed as he desired. He had very little hands on work anymore.

"You're going to dinner at Captain Katsuragi's." It was a statement, not a question. If it had been a question, it would have implied that he wasn't aware of the intimate going-ons of some of the most vital personages in his myriad plans. He had to keep up to date on almost all aspects of their daily lives, just to be sure that they would bend how he needed them too, and if needed, break how he need them to break.

His plan did call for breaking people, after all.

The blond doctor nodded, knowing that while he knew already, he was making conversation. It was a measure of how much he valued her that he would do such a thing. She also knew that the cuff-links she had gotten him would be the only birthday gift he would receive. Outside the Sub-Commander, and possibly Rei, she was the only person at NERV who knew the date. The reason that the girl didn't get him anything, she suspected, was because she shared the Commander's spartan and ascetic lifestyle. Neither of the two were very good at living.

Of course, according to some of the graffiti written on the bathroom walls that wasn't put there by himself, he didn't have a birthday because he had been evicted from hell, which is why the Angels were here. They wanted to keep him out of heaven.

"We haven't had a get together in some time. Since the Third Angel attacked, we've all been too busy." She zipped her purse shut. "The initial reports about the makeup of the Fourth Angel are on top of the other reports. It's a nearly complete specimen. Shin- er.. The Third Child did us a major favor with delivering it to us without it exploding like the First and Third."

"Yes. I will be down at the site tomorrow to inspect the core. I've already made the arrangements; you will not need to bother with playing tour guide to the brass. What of Evangelion Unit 00?"

"Everything is on schedule for the reactivation test in two days. While I'm out at the site, Maya will be leading the Section 1 Technical Team in finishing up the primary preparations. The last of the Bakelite was removed this morning."

"Good. The Magi still have no explanation as to the cause of the incident? It has been over a month. Our own independent tests have shown no reason for the failure of Rei to synch with Unit 00."

She shook her head. "The best they can come up with is mental instability in the pilot, but that doesn't make any sense; Rei is solid. She's dedicated to the Project; even more so that the Second Child. Even Misato remarked on that."

"Indeed. If there is another issue with this test we will need to try with a new clone. We must have all three Units working if we are to succeed."

"We'll find a way." She glanced at her watch. "Well, I need to be off if I'm to be on time. Good night, Commander." She turned and left, not waiting for the farewell she knew that would not be forthcoming. She knew that he had already turned back to his files, and he would stay like that until the very early hours of the morning, before sleeping on the small bed in the room hidden behind one of the bookcases.

If one was to say that she was a work-a-holic, he was a work-junkie. She knew that he took a dangerous mix of sleep aids and alertness aids, in addition to highly caffeinated coffee and alcohol.

Some hours after she left, he took a break from his work, and called up the security footage from the Katsuragi residence earlier that evening. Leaving the sound off, he watched as his son cooking in the kitchen, preparing soup and some sort of stir-fry. The two adult women chatted away most of the night, with his son remaining silent as far as he could tell. He cleaned up the dishes, and vanished into his room, where he remained the rest of the night. Gendo fast-forwarded until he saw Misato and Ritsuko hugging before the doctor left the apartment.

His son didn't seem to interact all that much with his guardian at home, it seemed, at least while a guest was present. Most of the other interaction he had observed from past footage was the Ops Director teasing his son gently. Her exuberant and outgoing personality however seemed to only further push his son deeper within himself.

Taking off the amber tinted glasses, he pinched the bridge of his nose. He could feel the beginning of another migraine forming, right at the front of his skull. The fact that these old glasses had an older prescription and were slightly bent from a past fist fight and thus had a habit of sliding down his nose didn't help matters. One had to admit that the fact that one of the most powerful men in the world didn't have time to get his eyes checked and new glasses made was pretty funny, if one was the type to laugh at such things.

Gendo didn't laugh very much these days. It was postulated that if he he ever were to laugh, the universe would stop working.

Switching off the computer screen, he glanced over at where he had set the unopened box from Dr. Akagi when he had moved through his paperwork and had started on her it up, he flipped open the lid and looked at the cuff-links. They were made of silver and had the same tree that was glowing on his ceiling etched in black stone. They certainly were nice, even though he knew that she knew that it wouldn't change the terms of their arrangement. It simply gave her some pleasure to give him little gifts on certain days. Women sometimes made no sense at all to him, despite the fact that he prided himself on understanding what made people tick. He had long since accepted the fact that women could be incomprehensible to men.

He pocketed the box and stood, pushing his chair back under the desk. He moved to the bookcase that hid the room in which he most commonly slept in these days, foregoing his larger, but still spartan apartment several floors above. Where he slept made no real difference to him; one bed was just as good as another. This bed, however was a single, which ensured that when he slept here he slept alone. The apartment was where he and Dr. Akagi truly slept together. Some might say that the small room that held a bed, a stool, and a dresser was like his soul; empty and barren. Five people knew otherwise, but only two would feel inclined to say anything about it if anyone ever asked.

Despite his small efforts to push his son and Rei together, both still kept their distance from each other. Rei was the only one he could directly prod, but he had to use a delicate touch with her, otherwise she would view it as an order, which he didn't want. Unfortunately, there was little he could use as a tool or leverage with her. She had no hobbies, excepting perhaps the book club at the school. She thankfully had ceased setting fire to things three years ago; but there was no way that he would encourage her to do that as a means of developing a friendship with Shinji. The boy might decide to use arson as a means to obtain his direct attention; and he had no time to deal with the repercussions of that.

He lay down on the bed, above to covers, still fully clothed, only putting his glasses on the small stool next to the head of the bed. He closed his eyes and waited for sleep to claim him.

Einz, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Ritsuko woke up, slightly hungover, but feeling good. She stretched, disturbing her cat who had claimed her feet for his sleeping place at some point during the night. She scratched his head with one hand as the other reached for her glasses. She could remember a time when she didn't need them as part of her full time dress. Not so anymore. _The years of darkened rooms and computer screens had certainly taken their toll. I wish it might be different, but... I can't change the past. No matter how I wish I could._

She looked at her clock. Plenty of time before she needed to go down to the recovery site. _I'll have some of the leftovers for breakfast. Shinji's quite the accomplished cook for such a young boy. I wonder if Gendo has any skill in the kitchen. I've heard it say that these things run in the family. _

_God knows I won't ever find out, but still. _She got out of bed, moving with a purpose now that she was awake. Whatever her mother might have neglected in her upbringing, she had instilled in her daughter an aversion to laziness. Once she started moving, or working, that was it. She did what she needed to do, working until the task was done. She wasn't one for lying around when she had a time-line to adhere to.

_I think I'll take Misato's offer up on coming over again tonight. It's certainly been awhile since I've had a good home cooked meal. It's no fair that she practically got a live in maid and cook when she took Shinji in. She seriously lucked out. I wonder if she knew that he could cook before she set up the request? That information wasn't anywhere in any report I ever saw on him._

Indeed, Misato had lucked out with Shinji, as he had almost a pathological aversion towards untidiness. He had almost gone into shock when he had first seen the state of the apartment. It had taken him the better part of two days to get it up to the level of livable according to his standards. He also had a similar, if not so intense, set of standards as to the food one ate on a regular basis. Misato's cornucopia of instant foods definitely did not come up to snuff.

As much as he detested messy living quarters, he refused to clean Misato's room. He wanted nothing to do with that disaster zone. It was bad enough that he had to do her laundry, but otherwise it would pile up everywhere and he'd end up doing it anyway. She had a habit of deciding to change outfits when she was really smashed, and left a trail of clothing everywhere she went. He had even found a shirt and a pair of panties in the refrigerator, behind a mountain of beer.

What boggled his mind was that she had to have seen them when restocking her supply of the cheap malt beer. Why hadn't she taken them out?

Right now he was standing in possibly the only clear area in her room, trying to wake her up before he left for class. She needed to get moving down to the recovery site where NERV techs were working to dissect and study the remains of the tentacled Angel. It was too big and unwieldy shaped for them to move whole into the Geo-Front as it was, so they were forced to work up on the surface. While this made sense to him, it didn't explain the fact that there was a navel battleship sitting in the giant lake down there. How had they gotten that in there? He wasn't sure if he really wanted to know.

"Miss Misato? You need to get up now if you're going to be at the site on time. Miss Misato?" He looked around for something to poke the slightly moving mass of blankets and limbs with. He stopped his search when she started moving, sitting up, revealing that she wasn't wearing a shirt. He spun around to face the door, blushing furiously.

"Mmmm?" She yawned, stretching, and if he hadn't turned around, he would have noticed her breasts moving in the most interesting manner. "Oh Shinji, it's you. Good morning." She blinked the last of the sleep from her eyes and realised that she was looking at his back. "What's the matter? Why are you looking at the door?"

Shinji nearly passed out. _Doesn't she realize that she's not wearing a shirt or underwear?_ Once again he wondered just how she came to be a Captain working for NERV. "Erm, uhh... You're not wearing a shirt." He almost died as he said it, and decided to bolt for the door. She was up now anyway, she should be alright. Stopping only to put on his shoes, he called back to let her know her breakfast was sitting in the microwave. He ran down to the stairwell, and stopped only once he had rounded the block and was out of view of the apartment building.

Misato stared at her bedroom's open door. _What was that all about? Just 'cause I'm not wearing a shirt? _She looked down, cupping her hands to her breasts. _Doesn't he like girls? He's all possessive of Ayanami for crying out loud. Even if he's in denial about it even to himself. Maybe it's the scar. _She frowned. She hated the long wicked looking scar that marred her abdomen. It forced her to wear a one piece when she went to the pool or beach, even if it had been such a long time since she had visited either, and it had scared more boys off than she could count. She felt hurt. Shinji didn't seem like the type of guy who bolted at marred flesh. Ayanami was barely out of her bandages for crying out loud! While the scars were faint against the girl's pale skin, they were there.

However, another glance down showed that the rumpled sheets that had made up her sleep-nest had hidden the scar from view. Besides, the shock of seeing it normally kept people's attention, not make them turn all the way around.

She began to laugh. "Ohh, Shinji...you're too easy." The boy had been embarrassed to see her in a state of undress. She would have to tease him about it when he came to the recovery site after school. The boy seemed to be extremely bashful, and hated being teased. He also tried to avoid giving offense to others, apologizing for a thousand imagined slights and offenses, even when someone was just remarking on something and just making conversation. Somehow, she didn't imagine that he had many friends at school. She hadn't seen him talking to anyone on the phone. If he wasn't at NERV or at school, he was here in the apartment, hiding in his room. She'd never even seen him just sitting in the living room watching television.

_I only hope that he doesn't regress further and just goes mute like I did. No matter what I do, it seems like all he does is avoid people. I don't think he's even really talked to Ayanami, even though he asked all those questions about her. I don't know why he won't go talk to her; he's like a knight riding to save a princess for crying out loud. He saved her from certain death. _Indeed, he had actually pestered her with questions about the blue haired girl, and Misato, unable to answer most of them had told him to go ask the girl herself. He had balked at the idea, as she suspected he would. _If only those two would get together. It'd be soooo cute. They's look so good together. _Of course, she knew the dangers of such fraternization on the battlefield. But she was confidant that the two introverted and shy children would still be controllable.

She glanced at the clock. She still had time. Plenty of time, and she wouldn't even have to drive all **that** fast. _He must be as neurotic about being on time as he is about cleaning up things._ _Oh well._

She finally got moving, deciding to forgo dressing fully and eating her food as she was. She kinda missed being able to walk around her apartment in various states of dress. It was a downside of having a roommate again, especially a male one, but she was pretty sure that his skill in the kitchen and at cleaning more than made up for it.

_Maybe I should do something nice for him today. Gotta show him that all the teasing's just in fun. I don't need him drawing further into himself. _She brightened, smiling around her toast. _I'll make dinner tonight for us! I haven't made it in a while. Especially if Rits is coming over tonight. I'll give him a break. Make him socialize with Rits while I'm in the kitchen._ She frowned momentarily. _Maybe she won't be the best one to make chit-chat with, but it's something. _Confident in her new plan, she went back to her room, still eating her toast, wriggling out of her pajama pants as she went, dropping them absent-mindedly in the hallway as she went to get dressed for the day.

Einz, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Oddly enough, both Gendo and his son had woken up at the same time. The main difference was that the elder Ikari male had gotten four and a half hours of sleep, while his son had gotten nine. Putting the glasses back on his head, he stood and left the room and then his office, stalking through the corridors (Gendo Ikari never walked anywhere, he flowed atop a dark cloud of doom, according to one bathroom stall) down to the break room where there were several pots of coffee available, no matter the time of day.

He slipped into the room, ignoring the other people present, and claimed and an entire pot, and was back out of the room before people even noticed that he was present.

Back in the office he sat it on a hot plate after pouring some into the commemorative NERV coffee mug he kept in his desk when he had company. It seemed that the fact that there was a coffee pot but no cups, mugs, coasters or coffee rings on his desk threw people for a loop. Of course, it never seemed to occur to them that he simply had a drawer dedicated to the trappings of hot drinks.

Inside this same drawer was three other coasters, one for the three other people who were allowed to consume his coffee, or on the rare times he had it, tea. A second mug, slightly chipped from when it's owner had dropped it on the floor when she was younger, also sat inside the drawer.

He opened the shades on the windows, and stared out at his domain, his little kingdom as he drank his coffee. He pulled a bottle out of a pocket, and dumped some of the whitish gray powder into the drink, and stirred the mixture.

He grimaced at the bitter taste of the inordinate amount of caffeine he had added to the already bitter coffee. Popping two pills, he downed the rest of his coffee. His morning ritual complete, he turned back to his desk to begin his day's work.

Hikari shot Toji a warning look as he, Kensuke passed her in the hallway. When the boy had showed up to class last week with split lips and a black eye, she had demanded to know what had happened. He had pushed her away, saying it was none of her business, until she threatened to ask his sister. He had turned white, and stammered out something about hitting a brick wall after tripping down a flight of stairs.

Hikari wasn't born yesterday, and had whirled onto her other friend. Kensuke had wilted almost immediately to Toji's disgust.

To say that she was furious was an understatement. Ikari, beat up Toji? Laughable, at best. Completely absurd. What on earth could possess him to do such a thing?

Unfortunately, it seemed that fate had a sense of schadenfreude, for Rei happened to come around the corner when she had asked this. Rei, apparently thinking that the boys were bringing the class representative into the know, elaborated on the fact that Ikari had been defending her honor.

Predictably, this opened up a whole new set of problems.

So now, the boys had to explain just why Ikari felt that he needed to defend a wounded girl's honor from them.

Rei, seemingly confused as to why she was asking such an obvious question. It was because they were asking her to remain silent about the beating that had been administered the day prior.

Rei, of course, had known all along that the boys had been trying to hide the truth, and then when that failed, try to weasel out of telling Hikari everything while maintaining damage control over the situation.

Fate might have a sense of schadenfreude, but Rei seemed to have an entire organ dedicated to it, at least as far as the two boys responsible for Ikari's beating were concerned.

Despite all three of the other student's assurances that everything had been a massive misunderstanding, it had taken the pig-tailed girl a while to calm down about the whole thing.

Which of course meant that Rei "accidentally" brought up the fact that the two had left the shelter's safety and had almost been crushed in the Angel Battle, and had to be rescued by the withdrawn boy.

Rei was having a field day with this. She felt warmth bubbling up inside of her, and she had to focus hard to keep from laughing inappropriately. It would ruin the careful image of obliviousness to the damage she was causing.

This warmth ended when Ikari had showed up, limping into the classroom. He weakly waved at them all, and sat in his usual seat. Hikari stood, in mid-wave, staring in shock at the terrible state the pilot was in. She wheeled on the boy in the tracksuit, but anger turned into horror on her face when Ayanami stepped in and explained that most of it apparently was the result of the battle, and not caused by Suzahara.

Throughout the rest of the week that followed, Shinji continued to eat alone, only moving to eat under the tree he had taken a liking too if it was otherwise unoccupied. Rei tried to eat there too, but to arrive just before Ikari, in order to allow for a uncontaminated collection of data from eating lunch with him, but whenever she arrived there first he seemed to desire to eat in the class. It was all very frustrating to her.

Toji and Kensuke, for their parts, had 'adopted' Shinji into their little group, but he wasn't very keen on eating on top of the roof with them. He would wave them on if they wanted to eat there, remaining in the class.

Toji, while thick headed at times, was true to his word. Making a note of the fact that the pilot was extremly uncomfortable with dealing with other student's questions about the Evangelion, he kept them at bay.

Today Hikari was eating lunch with the boys in the classroom. It was raining outside, and no-one felt like going up to the roof. Most of the class was down in the cafeteria, getting a break from the confines of the classroom. Ayanami was absently staring out at the rain, eating a sandwich. Shinji kept sneaking glances at her, which prompted Toji to lightheartedly tease him.

"So what's going on between you and Ayanami anyway, Shin-man?" He started in on a second biscut sandwich, wolfing down his food. "You keep watching her."

Hikari raised her eyebrows at this news, while Shinji turned red and started choking on his tea. "It's no..nothing. I was just thinking that I never see her hanging out with anyone. Doesn't she have any friends?"

Ken pulled his attention away from his computer, looking up. "Dude, you're like the only person that she's really talked to outside of regular class activities." He paused, glancing at the albino. "And even then she doesn't say much."

Hikari spoke up now. "Why the intrest, Ikari? I mean, it's noble of you to have defended her honor from these idiots-" She shot looks at the two other boys before continuing on, "but she was ok, and she's all better now. She had been caught up in a nasty car wreck a two weeks before you got here. No one even knew about until a few days later."

Shinji just stared at the girl. "She just seems so... so sad, I guess. She's like me, I suppose."

The others stared at him, in shock at his absentminded comment. Kensuke broke the silence first. "She's... like you? You mean an Evangelion Pilot?" His voice shot up an octave, excited. Two mecha pilots in his class? This was great!

Shinji blinked rapidly, throwing his hands up. "No, No, I meant that we don't have any friends." His brain caught up with his mouth, and he turned a deeper shade of red. "Not like that, I didn't mean like that. I meant that..."

Toji laughed, slapping the stuttering boy. "It's OK man, we know what you meant. We can't really be called friends just yet, based on how we met. That reminds me- when do you want to come meet my sister? She really wants to meet you." He looked down at his half eaten food, nd themn back at the pilot. "Annnd she wants to apologise for me. She thinks you let me off too easy." He stuffed the last of the sandwich in his mouth as Ken laughed.

"Yeah, when she demanded to know why he showed up all beat up, and then found out everything, I thought that she was going to hop down and beat him to death." Kensuke obviously thought it was amusing. "She's been bugging us to bring you along one of these days."

Shinji winced. _I know they say she's doing a lot better, and that she doesn't blame me for anything... but I did that to her. How many others have suffered because of me?_

"I..I can't today. I have to go down to the site today." He looked at the bespectacled boy. "And no, I'm sorry but I can't get you in. It's the same thing as the range down inside the base." When the military nut had found out that Shinji not only piloted the Evangelion, but also was getting weapons training from NERV personell, he had begged to be allowed to come, if only to watch, and not shoot. Shinji had asked, but it was deemed that the security risk was too great to allow someone who had already been in trouble for seeing things he shouldn't have to be able to tag along on Shinji's little outings with Lt. Aoba.

Hikari rolled her eyes. While Shinji had taken to shooting, he didn't seem to get the same intesne pleasure that her other friend had when dealing with military armaments. It seemed surreal to her sometimes. "Isn't it dangerous though? Shooting the guns, I mean."

Shinji waved his hand a little. "No, the first thing you learn is weapons safety. You learn how to check to see if it's on safe, and if it's loaded, and how to unload. Then they have you take it apart and put it back together. The first time you're even at the lanes you don't get ammo, you're learning and practicing how to get a good sight picture."

She shook her head. "From what you've all been able to tell me, I would have thought that you would have wanted nothing to do with human weapons after the fights."

He only nodded in agreement. "I thought that too, but Lt. Aoba made it a lot of fun. Plus, to shoot accuratly, you have to calm yourself down and control your breathing. It's kinda like meditating, I think."

Hikari found herself having to constantly adjust how she viewed the shy boy. Now he seemed more like a warrior monk, talking about meditating while shooting something that was meant to main and kill. This added a bit of mystequie to him that it didn't to Ken. Of course, his slightly crooked nose did lend a little some rogueish charm to him. She felt her cheeks start to grow warm and killed that train of thought.

Ayanami, having ears like a bat, was paying much more attention to them than it seemed. From everything that she had seen, she was almost convinced that her co-worker wasn't running scocial experiments on the class at all, and was just someone caught up in the river of the Plan. She wasn't sure how she felt about this news however.

_If he is not running anything counter to the Commander's Plan, then I may procede along with my own experiments on him as soon as an oppurtunity presents itself. However, I must keep escape aveneues open in the event that he is playing a deeper level experiment than I. He has already shown evidence of being able to operate on the Commander's level, even if only momentairly. I am not that easy to manipulate in conversations._ Of course, this was a glareing fallacy in her reasoning. While she imagined herself to be caple of obsfucating her true nature and pulling people's strings like the Commander, if to a slightly lesser degree, the reason that she enjoyed the success she had was because she almost never talked to people. Thus they often reacted in the way she wanted because they were shocked that she was even talking.

Finishing her sandwich, she reached into her bag for a can of tea, her hand brushing along the cat's coller (with attached bell) that she had procured from a pet store. Carefully watching his reflection, she tried to imagine what he would look like if he was wearing it.

_He obviously is interested in me, but has not yet approached me as other males do to females they hold an interest in. If he is so bold and careing to do battle on my behalf against both an Angel and a percived human threat, even if he is wounded, it would seem that he should have no difficulty in approaching me. He hasn't even done so to discuss the Commander. Is he not interested in his father? He surely knows that he and I discuss things on a regular basis._ _Perhaps he needs a way to approach me in a manner that does not skew any data he is collecting._

Perhaps she should aquire a labcoat for him to wear as well, if only to see what he looked like. There were plenty more in the storeroom. She sighed quietly, sipping her tea. She was working with insufficiant data and there seemed no way for her to get the data she needed.

_I wonder why he is going down to the recovery site today. If he does not have an appropriatly high scientific background, the experiments would be senseless to him. He wouldn't understand what was going on._

It had never occured to her that Misato didn't want him hanging out at the apartment alone anymore than he already did.

Einz, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji sat in the control room, wearing a jumpsuit and hard hat, and sipping on a cup of coffee. Dr. Akagi and Miss Misato had been talking about things he had no hope of understanding, something about protien chains and GATC sequences and Hex Structures.

_This is boreing. I'm just sitting here, not doing anything. I can do that at home. _ He looked around the room, and saw his father walk by the door out of the corner of his eye. Poking his head out the door, he watched as his father's entourgage approached the area where the were cutting bits and peices from the Angel's body. His eyes widened as he saw horrific scars all over his father's palms, which were clasped behind him. For whatever reason, his father's white gloves were tucked in a pocket of his coat, he could see them poking out.

"What'cha looking at Shinji?" Misato joined him at the door, her own cup of the bitter brew in hand.

"Noth...nothing." He stuttered, and flushed as both Misato and Dr. Akagi rolled thier eyes.

"You know, Shinji, when you say that it's nothing in that manner, it's like a flag to the rest of the world that something is wrong." Dr. Akagi smiled at him, switching off the moniter.

Misato chimed in with her two cents. "Yeah, out with it mister." She flashed her grin at him, poking him gently in the shoulder.

He swallowed, trying to find the answer in his cup. "I was just wondering how my father's hands got scarred up like that?"

Mistato cocked her head. She had heard the story first hand from Rits after she had been assigned to the slot of Ops Director. She looked at Rits expectantly. "Well, Rits, you know it better than me."

The blond doctor shook her head with a sigh. "Well, when Pilot Ayanami was participating in her activation and synch test, the Evangelion went out of control. It was really touch and go, and then the Entry Plug ejected. Mind you, this is all down in the Activation Cages, so the retro rockets were slamming it all around the room, until the fuel was expended and it fell down to the surface." She paused to sip her drink. "The Commander ran down to the cage floor, and opened the emergancy eixt by hand. Now, the sides of the plug generate intense heat during activation and normal use of the Evangelion. The metal was super hot, and he was badly burned, but he managed to ensure Rei's survival."

Shinji, shocked, had only one thing to say to this.

"Bullshit."


	9. Chapter 9

**Welcome to NERVnet. Please enter your user-name and password now.**

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**Aoba.S**

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**Welcome Lt. Aoba.**

**Open .magi1**

**Commander Gendo Ikari Facts!**

**1. Gendo Ikari's tears are cold enough to fix Antarctica, thus restoring the environment to it's Pre-Second Impact state. Too bad Gendo Ikari has never cried.**

**2. The only reason there is a door in Gendo Ikari's office is so other people can walk in and out. Gendo Ikari walks through walls.**

**3. Sticks and stones may break your bones, but if Gendo Ikari stares at you for five minutes, your heart will stop.**

**4. Gendo Ikari had a staring contest with the sun. Gendo Ikari won.**

"What are you working on, Aoba?" Maya's voice startled the long haired technician, who jumped a little in his seat.

"Oh, nothing much. I just thought that I'd compile all of the things people have written about the Commander in the bathroom stalls on the NERVnet." He glanced up at the other tech, as she leaned over him to glance at his terminal's screen. Once more he silently bemoaned her 'no dating coworkers' policy.

The mousy tech raised her eyebrows as she read down the list of over a hundred little "facts" about the imposing Commander of NERV. "Hey, people write things about him in the guy's restrooms too? I thought it was only in the woman's rooms."

"I didn't think that the ladies were much inclined to writing amusing graffiti about the commander on bathroom stalls, Maya."

"Neither did I until I saw them. Wait, this one I've seen before!" She pointed to fact #57- Gendo Ikari will never have a heart attack, because Gendo Ikari doesn't have a heart. "That's written in the locker-room down at the pool!"

Aoba frowned. "I got that one from the guy's bathroom in the Prinbow Box." The two stared at each other for a moment. "Do think that there are other duplicates?"

Maya sounded unsure when she finally replied. "There could be, but how? Is someone sneaking into both men's and women's areas just to write graffiti?"

"Someone could have overheard someone-else talking about it and decided to write it down too." Aoba pointed out. "It doesn't have to be the same person."

"That's true.. but the wording is exactly the same."

"It's a short sentence, Maya. There's not a lot that can change."

"Maybe you're right. Well, we need to finish up preparations for tomorrow's test. Besides, do you think that's a smart idea putting this stuff on the NERVnet? He is our boss, you know."

"Maya, if he didn't people writing these things, don't you think the bathrooms would be covered with fresh paint?"

"Graffiti is one thing, but putting it on the Magi is something-else altogether. Come on, let's get to work."

"OK, but let me add this new one I found first."

Maya sighed good naturedly. "What is it?"

"Gendo Ikari does not get burned when he touches super hot metal; the metal gets burned."

"That's not even funny! That doesn't even make sense."

"Then why are you trying not to laugh?"

"Shut up!"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji and Ritsuko sat at the table in silence. Ritsuko watched as Shinji stared at the floor, avoiding her eyes. _He's probably still trying to wrap his head around the fact that his father did something so heroic. The poor boy just hasn't seen that side of his father before. It's too strange for him to comprehend._ Dr. Akagi, for her part, was trying hard to ignore the sounds of Misato 'cooking' in the kitchen. When she had found out that Misato planned on making the meal tonight, instead of Shinji preparing another tasty homemade meal, well, she had been less than enthusiastic. _That woman can make instant food even less palatable. _

"So, Shinji, how's school? Are you keeping up with your studies?" She sipped the tea that Shinji had made before Misato had booted him out of the kitchen, along with instructions to not vanish into his room. It was probably going to be the only thing that tasted like it should this evening.

Shinji started suddenly, not expecting the somewhat distant doctor's question. She had been a little put out with him the rest of the afternoon following his rather undiplomatic assessment of his father.

"Well, I'm staying caught up with the work that's being handed out, even with the tests I have to do for NERV." _Even if they take up a ton of time and I barely get any sleep trying to keep up. _"A lot of the stuff I was taught before, by my teacher."

"Oh, yes, you were privately tutored, correct?" She took another sip. "I know that we take a lot of your time, but it's still important to keep up with your studies." _Because it'll be sooo useful later on. Ha._ "Are you still going to the range with Lt. Aoba? Your marksmanship skills in the sims has gone up." She refilled her cup.

"Yes, we're still going when we can schedule it. Since it was helping me with my shooting in the sims, he also wanted to do some knife fighting, but I'm not so sure that I want to try that out."

Ritsuko raised an eyebrow at the mental image of the introverted boy before her knife fighting. She knew that Gendo had done quite a bit of bar brawling in his younger days, and she wouldn't put it past him to be handy with a knife, either, but the idea of his son, this frightened little boy getting into a fist fight was laughable. Adding a knife to the equation was even more laughable.

"Well, keep the possibility in mind. Defeating the Angels is the purpose of NERV, after all. It's our responsibility to do all we can to accomplish that goal." Sip. "Have you made any friends at school? I'm sure that a handsome young man like yourself must be beating the girls off with a stick." _Yeah right. Damn it Misato... What can I talk to him about? It's not like I can just make small talk about the real reasons behind him going to school, or NERV going-ons like I can with you. And I can't talk to him at all about what's really going on._

Shinji just stared at the doctor for a minute. _What? What is she talking about?_ "Um... not really. I mean, I've got some friends, I guess. I talk to a couple of the other students some anyways." _If only because they feel like they need too because I saved them. But they know I won't say anything to anyone, so I guess they really are my friends._ "We hang out after class when we can too."

Having read Misato's reports on his somewhat unlikely befriending of the two idiots that had been capering about on the surface during the last battle, even if they had been worried about Rei's safety, was expecting such a reply. She also had read enough psychoanalysis reports on the boy to know that he was extremely unlikely to go out of his way to make others. Still, at least he had some, unlike Rei.

"I'm sure that being in the same class as Rei helps things too. I know that her cover hasn't been blown yet", she paused to sip her tea, inwardly chuckling as he blushed, "but having her there to help get you eased into the class must have been handy." _Let's see what he says to that nonsense. Rei couldn't help ease a rock into a geologist's collection._

Shinji was saved from having to think up an answer to this by Misato's timely appearance, walking out of the kitchen with a tray of what could loosely be considered food. "Shin-chan, can you go get the curry sauce I made? It's sitting on the stove."

"Yes!" He scrambled to his feet with an enthusiasm not for the prospect of eating her 'curry' but for avoiding the awkward question from the doctor.

Misato handed Ritsuko a beer, and opened one of her own. "How'd the small talk go? Did you guys gossip about me?" She grinned at her friend before draining half the can in one go.

Sighing, Ritsuko took a fortifying chug from her beer; it was one the best ways to deal with Misato's cooking. "No, whatever it was we did, it certainly didn't qualify as small talk. Getting him to socialize is like pulling teeth. He's almost as bad as Rei." She quickly took another drink as Shinji returned, bearing a pot of spicy sludge.

Grabbing her bowel of instant curry flavored noodles, Misato motioned for Shinji to heap some of the goop onto her food. "How are things for tomorrow's test, anyways? Is everything ready?"

After poking her noodles with one of her chopsticks, Ritsuko looked back at her hostess, who was already shoveling the unholy conglomeration into her mouth, not showing any sign that her food was bothering her taste-buds at all. "Yes, everything's set up for tomorrow. We'll have Shinji standing by in case Unit-00 goes berserk again to help contain it." She tentatively tested a small portion of her food, and while it certainly wasn't the worst she had ever had from Misato, it still made her wince.

Misato grinned at Shinji. "Maybe you'll get to come to her rescue again, Shinji", she said with a wink and a smirk.

Shinji shifted in surprise at her remark, but both adults put it down to the spiciness of the food. Ritsuko did, at least. Misato put it down to embarrassment. _How does she know about that? The Section 2 guy said they wouldn't say anything to anyone! _"Umm.. what?"

"You know, coming in to save her from being sent off to fight the Third Angel. You can't tell me that's not straight outta a story." Misato sighed. "You can't tell me that that didn't run through your mind when you agreed to pilot."

Shinji, relieved to hear her train of thought, breathed a soft sigh of relief. "Not exactly. I mean, she was so hurt... I couldn't let her go out to die."

Unfortunately for him, this was just the thing that Misato had been waiting for; ammunition with which to tease him with. "You're such a hero Shinji, I'm surprised you two haven't been hanging out together, if ya know what I mean." She let out a laugh as her ward began blushing and stuttering incoherently. "Oh Shinji, you're too easy. You just go ballistic when someone teases you."

Ritsuko calmly came in with her own targeted comment. "Yes, he's just like you, Misato." Hiding her smile behind her beer, she watched Misato's face turn as red as Shinji's. "You know, you might want to think about moving out, Shinji. You shouldn't let one bad roommate ruin your life." She smiled again as Misato choked on her second beer.

"Very funny Rits. It'd be more of a pain for him to go and do that; he just got his permanent security card. It'd mean a lot of paperwork and red tape to go and move now.

"Argh... that reminds me; I forgot to give Rei her new security pass." Ritsuko turned from the table and dug around in her purse. She pulled out the pass, and handed it to Shinji. _I don't know why the Commander wants these two pushed together, but whatever. _"Shinji, can you give this to her tomorrow? You won't be going to class because of the activation test, but you can swing by her place in the morning and come in together."

"I was going to bring him in with me in the morning, Rits. I can just go pick up Rei too." Misato offered, before shoveling the last of her bowl into her mouth.

_Damn it, that's not what he wants. They won't talk to each other if they're traumatized by your driving._ "No need for them to be in as early as you Misato. They don't need to show up until eleven. They might as well get to enjoy **some** time off." She winked at Misato, hoping that she'd get the idea.

Misato, completely oblivious to the wink, watched Shinji staring at Rei's picture. More ammunition! "You're staring at her picture, aren't you?" He began sputtering again, his face matching Rei's eyes.

"Well, now you've got a reason to go over to Rei's place." She threw a wink to Shinji, and then one to Ritsuko, who just barely resisted the urge to palm her forehead.

_Trust her to state the cheesiest, most obvious thing, and go along with it, even if it's what he wants. _Not for the first time, she wondered just how it was that everything seemed to fall into place, in one way or another, for the Commander. _I don't understand how it is that he always seems to get what he wants. How does he do it?_

Gendo Ikari Fact # 243- Gendo Ikari is proof that Karma and Santa Claus do not exist. He always gets what he wants, not what he deserves.

Shinji, not able to come up with anything to say in his defense, fled the table and ran to his room. Misato laughed, calling to him. "Aww, comeback Shinji..." She smiled in the direction he had gone before finishing her beer. "Oh, that poor boy. I wonder what he'll say about the place she lives in?"

"You mean that dilapidated building? Well, if he asks, just tell him about her old place."

"Like he'll believe that Rei burned down a steel and concrete structure in the Geo-Front. I didn't believe it until I saw the video." Misato cracked open another beer, and opened the bag of prawn crackers. "What was her excuse for that, again? I just have a hard time of seeing her as an arsonist."

Ritsuko sighed. "Her explanation to the Commander was that she was testing the flash points of different materials, after reading about them in a book. This was when we decided that she needed socialization with kids her own age, and set her up in the school above. Her room is completely serviceable, despite the rest of the building.. being what it is. If she decides to burn it to the ground too, well, nobody will notice. "

"Section 2 does keep a good eye on right? I still don't feel to comfortable with the idea of her living on her own out there."

"They have people there all day, even when she's not, to keep the squatters out. She's the only one who lives there, in the entire place. It's perfectly safe."

"Still... a fifteen year old girl living by herself in a place like that could raise a few red flags."

Ritsuko shook her head. "Misato, using fifteen year old children as pilots of giant bio-mechanical cyborg war machines could raise a lot more flags than that. Her living on her own is a small drop in the ocean of secrets we have to keep."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Gendo Ikari allowed himself the pleasure of a grin as he read over the Gendo Ikari Facts! page on the internal NERVnet. This was outstanding! It would be much easier to post new bits on here, rather than sneaking into different restrooms and writing on the walls. It was unfortunate that he couldn't give Lt. Aoba formal recognition for this, but that was the way things were. _Why didn't I think of this? If I didn't have the access to the Magi that I do, I wouldn't have been able to figure out that it was Lt. Aoba. No-one, excepting Dr. Akagi would have been able to figure out that it was me behind the whole thing. _Deciding to chalk it up to another of his social experiments bearing unexpected fruit, he perused the rest of the list. Almost all of the ones he had written were already up, as well as some of the ones other people had written. There were even some completely new ones, submitted via the anonymous posting form.

Today had been a good day for him. The teams were making good headway with the remains of the Angel, even though the core sample that was viable was small, it was better than nothing. The Third Child had been nothing but through when destroying the Enemy. Idly, he wondered if Rei had obtained videos of that fight was well to study. _I will have to be sure to talk to her before the activation test tomorrow. She won't be afraid, but it will do her good to get a pep talk beforehand. _

Sipping his tea, he pulled another stack of reports from his 'IN' tray. _The old men grow impatient in regards to the Dummy Plug system. A fleet of Mass Produced Evangelions would be useless without the system, unless they have been training a group of pilots completely subservient to them. That would be hard for even them to hide from me, if they felt so inclined. They may not trust me completely, but I do not think that they suspect my true aims._ He looked up as the Sub-Commander entered his office.

"Fuyutsuki."

"Ikari."

Such was the greeting that the two had shared for over ten years. The two conspirators, party to one of the greatest crimes against humanity, planning another one as a coup against the greatest one that could ever occur, one so great that there had not even been a name for it until Gendo had proposed one to SEELE; the name of Instrumentality. An artifact or system of artifacts that is instrumental in accomplishing some end. So, the Instrumentality of Mankind, the great system of artifacts instrumental in accomplishing the end of Mankind. The sheer arrogance of the name appealed to SEELE, and so they formed the Human Instrumentality Committee on the U.N., with the supposed aim of helping shape human behavior and habits to have less of an impact on the stressed Post-Impact environment.

"Everything is in place for tomorrow's test. Final preparations are complete. Activation will commence at one in the afternoon." Gendo moved back to his reports as Kozo pulled a chair from a closet, hidden behind another movable bookcase.

"Will you be bringing heat resistant gloves to this test?" Kozo smirked as he carefully eased into the chair, before settling back. "The Magi never did come up with a certain answer for the incident."

"The Third Child will be on standby in Unit-01. If any issues come up, he will be able to deal with them." Gendo ignored the old man's quip at his expense.

"So I take it you don't buy the idea of mental instability in Rei?"

"No more than I would suspect mental instability in you or I. She is dedicated to the scenario as she understands it. It comprises the entirety of her life."

"What then could have caused the incident? You seem fairly calm and cavalier about something with the potential to ruin the plan."

"You forget that I'm not a micro manager. Besides, if anything happens, we can always decant another clone. Any memory loss that occurs will be put down to traumatic head injuries."

Kozo smirked again. "Then why did you rush to the girl's rescue the first time?" He stretched his legs out, wincing as his knees popped.

Gendo, still going over his reports, merely shook his head gently. "She's still a little girl Kozo. Are you trying to see if I'm still human, based of how I respond to your questions? I think that I spent the last of my rage a long time ago, after I found out about this mess."

"I don't know about that. After Yui went through... with the test... when you brought me in on the whole thing... your plan that is, not SEELE's... you still seemed fairly upset."

"I had begged her not to go through with it. Or at the very least... not to entomb herself in that thing right before his eyes... He was just a kid, Kozo. He was three, Kozo. He didn't understand what happened, and if I have my way he never will. A brighter and better future? As part of some collective hivemind? Pull the other one, it's got bells on it."

"She probably was upset when you had that core removed from the Evangelion."

"I'm not going to risk her sucking my son up into it on a whim, even with all the safeties in place. We'll swap the cores right before we trigger our Impact, and not a moment sooner." He snapped the folder shut and leaned back in his chair, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes. "The scrolls say that the next Angel will be one of the strongest. It should be here within a fortnight."

"Is that why you've pushed Unit-00 through repairs so fast? So Shinji can have Rei for support?"

"Yes. We're throwing him to the wolves, and he's done admirably well so far, but there's no need for him to stand alone between us and the end of the world. I don't need him to break just yet."

"What of Soryu's girl, and Unit-02? When will SEELE release them to us? That girl must incensed that the war has kicked off and she's stuck on the western front."

"While everything checks out with the unit and the girl, they keep scheduling more tests. As for her, well... she'll get her share of battle soon enough. Besides, the longer they push off sending them to us, the better. My agent in Berlin is poised to take control of Adam, and will smuggle him to us along on the trip."

"Can he be trusted? He is working for SEELE **and** the JSSDF."

"That's exactly why he can be trusted; because we know that he can't be. Besides, you forgot that he's working for someone else as well; himself. Above all other things in life, he wants to know the truth."

Kozo was puzzled by that statement. "The truth? The truth about what? Just saying 'the truth' is a rather ambiguous statement."

"He wants to know the real reason behind Second Impact, behind the Katsuragi Expedition, and just who was behind it all. If he was more technically minded, he'd be working for us as a researcher or scientist already, he's that interested in finding things out. But he's the type of person who likes to find out secrets."

"I don't know if you sound like if you're fond of him or not."

"I find him rather distasteful, if you must know. He likes to find out things about people, and holds onto that knowledge. He smirks at others because he knows the deep, dark things they hold in their souls, and thinks that nobody else knows. He laughs at them, Kozo, he prides himself on knowing. Just that, the knowing. The only redeeming factors I can say he has is that he doesn't blackmail people with the things he knows, that he's diligent in his work, and that he's predictable. If only he could turn that burning need to know to something useful, like science, or history, and not people. But as it is, he's one of the best spys out there. That's why he works for three different, opposing agencies at the same time."

"So he'll be a nuisance, with only a few ways with which to be a real irritant, but ultimately not a danger." Kozo sounded doubtful about this analysis. "It seems to me that we're dismissing him out of hand. He's like a bell on a cat's collar, made to warn of our approach."

"Once we have Adam, his major use to us if over. After that, it'll only be a matter of time before we or SEELE kill him. His habit of not sharing that which he knows will mean that he'll get caught up in the enormity of the secrets we hold here, so he won't be a bell that rings. Once he delivers Adam, I'll give him enough of a hint to keep him too busy with finding out our deep, dark, soul-kept secrets to be a bell that rings. Eventually, either SEELE will kill him for not doing his job, or we will in retaliation for a rather obvious 'job' SEELE will have him pull. He doesn't know it yet, but he's a dead man once he gets here." Gendo paused to pour another cup of tea, and silently offered his friend some. "At any rate, the only way I can see him being a real danger is if he does something to disrupt operations during an Angel attack."

Kozo sat in silence for a few minutes as Gendo drank his tea. "You know, the way you carry on sometimes I forget that you're not actually clairvoyant."

"Clairvoyance would be a boon and a curse. Knowing too much can drive men mad. Look at the council. Mad with power, with the knowledge that there is a way to become a god. If they didn't know what they did, they would just be corrupt men in places of power."

"But what of us? We know all that, and we know the true horror of what we're doing in order to stop it. Manipulating the entire lives of children, **creating** one from scratch, and ultimately planning on destroying their minds, bodies and souls in order to save the rest of mankind, who won't even know what happened."

"They are our offering, our burnt sacrifice. As much as we might wish otherwise, that is the cost of mankind. SEELE's plans are to far along to disrupt with mere executions and assassinations now. Some of them won't even be able to be gotten to anyways, if we're right about who we think they are. I definitely know that we can't get to Keel, and as long as he's alive, so is SEELE. Removing them without triggering our own impact will only delay theirs."

Shaking his head sadly, Kozo stood. "Well, I for one will be trying to get some sleep tonight. I would suggest you do too, but I know that you won't."

Gendo looked up, a puzzled expression on his face. "What? I sleep about four hours a day."

Kozo smiled. "Gendo Ikari Fact Number 87- Gendo Ikari doesn't sleep- he waits."

Gendo was still laughing when Kozo left the office.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji looked up at the apartment building. While this was in the direction of the school he had seen Ayanami walking to and from, and while the building number matched her ID, he had trouble accepting that this was where she lived. _This place is a dump! A real dump! It's worse than Miss Misato's place was! Are people even __**allowed**__ to live here?_ He looked around for a 'Condemned' sign hanging up in front of the doors, but his search was in vain, for there was no such sign. _Maybe father doesn't care as much about her as I thought... Wait a minute... was I going to be living here? I need to remember to thank Miss Misato_ _later... _His thoughts were derailed when a door on the ground floor slide open, and a man wearing the black suit and sunglasses of the now familiar Section 2 strolled out.

"Hey, kid, either you got business here, or you don't. So go on up and see your girlfriend, or scram, OK? We don't need people hanging around and just gawking at the place, it's not that interesting." While his words were harsh, his tone was amused, taking the bite out of his scolding.

Shinji quickly nodded, managing not to stammer as he darted for the elevator.

"And don't bother with the elevators, they're broken!" The not so secret agent called after the fleeing teenager.

"Yes Sir!"

Laughing, the man walked back indoors, flipping his sunglasses up onto his head. Another three men were lounging in the room, one eating from a pizza, the other sitting at mobile field Magi terminal, monitoring the various security cameras showing the outside of the building and the other four security stations, one in the basement, one on the roof, and one on the same floor as Rei's apartment. The last man had been waiting just inside the door, holding a slung MP5 in the unlikely event that someone was going to be making a move on the building.

The man eating pizza looked up. "Was that Ikari's kid?"

"Yeah, Dr. Akagi said that he was going to be coming over today with Ayanami's new security card."

"Why didn't they just give it to one of us to hand off to her like normal?"

The man with the MP5 laughed. "Because someone high up wants the two to get together."

"Are you serious? The two of them? I mean, yeah it'd be convenient, but she's creepy, dude. And from what I hear, he's too shy to say boo to a mouse."

"That's not what I heard from Mobile 4's leader. The boy attacked the two interlopers from the last battle, despite getting the shit kicked out of him by the bigger kid the day prior, and having been banged up in the actual fight. All over 'protecting' her, if you buy that."

"What? If she was in any danger, Mobile 4 would have moved in."

"The funny thing is, Mobile 4 and Mobile 10 did move in... to pull him off the other kid."

"Are you serious? He lets the guy beat him up, not a peep, but he attacks them over nothing, out of concern for **her**? Kid's a nutter."

The agent watching the displays chimed in, tossing a glance towards the others. "Why didn't Mobile 6 stop the first fight anyway? We all got told that if anything happened to Ayanami, for every out of place hair on that girl's head we'd get a bone broken. We got told that by Ikari himself. Seems to me that Mobile 10 should all be sitting in full body traction right about now. Am I wrong, or am I right?"

The leader of Base 4 shrugged. "I gotta buddy in 10 Group, and he said that they were told to let him deal with minimal stuff, like fist fights with other kids, on his own unless he called for help, or if it got out of hand. Otherwise, same rules as us; minimal intrusion, low profile. Mobile 10 was moving in once it started to look ugly, but backed off once Ayanami defused the situation."

"Still... if we let someone break the girl's nose... heads would roll."

"Hey, nobody ever said that the boss's paternal instincts made any sense."

"Nobody ever said that the boss made sense. Mobile 1 says that some days he never leaves the office. At all. For days at a time."

"Yeah, at least we don't have to hang out near to Mausoleum. I mean, this detail gets boring, but hey, it's not 1 Group, right?"

The others could only agree. The men of 4 Group, while having a sort of attachment for the "creepy little girl", as they affectionately called her, could not deny that while not the cushiest of assignments, it was a lot better than being assigned to 1 Group, watching over the Supreme Commander. Of course, they all dreaded the day that the girl would discover boys (or girls, whatever floats her boat and sinks her sub) and either got into a fight or was reduced to tears.

Because them busting in and breaking people in half wasn't going to help her out at all, and then they would have to face the music.

So hey, maybe if the two shy pilots of the massive death machines got together, things might not be so bad. It's not like they could go and beat the kids up, could they? They'd be completely blameless.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Even with the Section 2 man down on the ground floor, Shinji still was having a hard time accepting that this place was Ayanami's home. The elevators were broken, there was trash in the stairwells and hall way, including **used needles**, and parts smelled like old urine. Not for the first time, he wondered about his father's sanity. He finally found room 402, which, while having a nameplate of Ayanami R., had a mail slot overflowing with correspondence marked as 'For Resident' and 'Akio Hideaki', whoever that was.

Deciding to trust the nameplate and the ID card, he worked up the courage to push the door buzzer, only to be rewarded with no response whatsoever, as it was broken. Sighing, he knocked on the door, calling her name, only to find the door swing open under his hand. Trying the door's lock, he found that it was broken. _Is this some sort of elaborate joke? Why do I get the feeling that someone is laughing at me?_

Of course, at that moment, sixteen men were all laughing at him, watching him on the video feed as he looked in bewilderment at the open door and up and down the hall. When he finally gave in and walked in, closing the door behind him, the men of Base 4 all cheered.

Meanwhile, a man sitting in the passenger seat of an armored sedan grinned and lowered his binoculars. Turning to the driver, he punched him in the shoulder. "You owe drinks when we get off shift. He went in."

"Damn it."

Back inside the apartment, Shinji stared around, looking at the dust, grime and dirt that covered just about everything. Tip-toeing through the place, still calling out Ayanami's name, he was struck by the lack of items in the small apartment.

_Bloody bandages... she's been out of them for a few days now! Why are they still here? Trash... and the floor... This place is horrible! How can she live like this?_ Shock turned to angry confusion, as he thought about the man downstairs. _How can they let her live like this?_

As he moved deeper into the main room of the apartment, his gaze was caught by a pair of broken glasses on the dresser. _She doesn't wear glasses, does she? I've never seen her wear them for anything._ He picked them up, inspecting the warped metal frames, and the lenses with spiderweb cracks. Just barely readable was G. Ikari imprinted on the inside of one arm. _These are my father's?_

Impulsively, he put the glasses on, as if to see the world as his father had.

Unknown to him, Rei had been standing behind him for almost a minute, in quiet shock.

_IKARI! Why is he here? His body language is consistent with anger and disapproval. What is he upset about? _After watching him tentatively rub his finger along the grimy surface of her kitchen counter, he eyes widened. _Perhaps he does not approve of the state of cleanliness. Captain Katsuragi did mention that he was somewhat of a 'neat-freak'. Why do I feel... embarrassed? Why do I feel embarrassed about this? It's not as if the utility of the apartment is hindered by it's current state. _As he moved deeper into her home, she was struck with a new idea, and if the subject of her attention had happened to turn around, he would have seen something seldom seen... her smile.

Ducking back into the bathroom, she quietly shut the door, and stripped off her clothing, kicking it into a corner. Quietly, she filled an empty beaker with water from the sink, and dumped it over her head. She hurriedly repeated this process twice more. _I need to move before he leaves. This is perfect! A perfect opportunity for SCIENCE!_

Grabbing her towel and slipping back into her slippers, she opened the bathroom door again, making sure to make more noise this time. Drying her hair with the towel, being sure to show off her body, and willing herself not to ruin it by blushing, she walked into the room that made up most of the apartment. She stopped as Shinji turned around, wearing the Commander's glasses and an expression of shock, horror, and embarrassment.

Shinji, faced with the nude and glistening form of the girl who had troubled his thoughts for weeks, could only stand there stuttering as he blushed. _Wow! She's blue all over... oh god she's going to kill me!... why did they let me come up here oh god..oh god..._

_He's wearing the Commander's glasses! Those are MINE! They don't belong to him! He can't take those from me! _Frowning, her other plans suddenly and momentarily forgotten, she dropped the towel and strode forth on the retreating boy, intent on reclaiming her property.

Unfortunately for Shinji, his escape route ended with the same dresser he had taken the glasses from. As she grabbed his shirt with one hand, the other going for the glasses, he reflexively took a step forwards when his back hit the dresser. The strap of his bag caught on one of the open drawer's pull knobs, pulling him back as she pulled on him. This, when added to the fact that having an attractive naked girl pulling on him causing him to lose all motor control, made him slip and fall over, knocking Rei over, and pulling the drawer out to fall on his head, spilling it's contents over both teenagers, who lay in a mass of tangled limbs on the floor in stunned silence.

The Commander's glasses forgotten for the moment in her hand, her thoughts ran wild, despite her staying carefully still. _He's touching me! Oh warmth and fuzziness abound indeed! It's just as observed conversations suggested. He is very warm. He doesn't smell like smoke, however this is to be expected. I doubt that he has been near any N2 munition detonations today. I would have noticed if one went off. How different would this be if he was also naked? Is he also filled with warmth and fuzziness? _

Shinji's brain was currently trying to reboot itself, having gone into what Rei would call a 'Fatal Recursive Loop'. _…Boob!... Hand!...Rei!...Naked!...OH GOD!..._

After a minute of Shinji not taking the advantage and doing anything but lie there with his hand on her breast, Rei began to grow frustrated. _Why does he do nothing? If he likes this, if he feels as I do, why does he do nothing? And if he doesn't like it, why does he prolong contact? _As her mind began to run through possible reasons for his stillness, her hand closed around the glasses, and her former irritation returned, and multiplied when added to the current unsatisfactory state of things.

"Will you get off?" She forced her voice to be curt and bored sounding.

As he sputtered, her voice jarring him back into reality, he got up, backing off. Getting to her feet, she dropped the glasses into her bag, next to the cat's collar. _I suppose I will have to get rid of that now._ Ignoring him as he tried to talk, she got dressed. _He's not making any sense. Who sent him over here? What did they send him with?_ _Why doesn't he like me? He said that no one could hurt me! What is WRONG with him?_ Still ignoring the nonsense issuing forth from his mouth, she grabbed her bag and left, being sure to slam the door behind her.

A few seconds later, Shinji followed, still unsure as to what the hell just happened.

The men of Mobile 4 and Mobile 10, briefed by radio on Shinji's entrance into Rei's home, were trying to puzzle out what had transpired between the two pilots.

"I'm telling you, he asked her out, and she shot him down. That's why he's following behind her a few feet."

"No, man, if she shot him down, he'd be all weepy. If the girl you went all Conan the Barbarian over on a kid she knew who had beat you up before shot you down, you'd be a wreak."

"Then why aren't they sucking face then? Something had to have happened."

When the two eventually got to NERV Central's main entrance, Rei took out her card and ran it through the reader. Noting the error code on the display, she reversed the card, and ran it again, getting a message to reverse her card and try again. Reversing the card again, she got the error code again. Frowning, she began to inspect her card, when Shinji stepped up and ran another card, this time causing the door to open.

"I tried to explain earlier, but they issued you a new card and gave it to me to-"

Still not speaking to him, she snatched it from his hands, noting a small pleasure in the shock on his face as she moved away. _Why do I gain pleasure from this? It is smaller than the pleasure when we touched. Are these things linked?_

Shinji, following through the gate, caught up to her on the escalator. _I've got to try and salvage this... but how? What can I talk to her about?_

"So... ummm... " _Oh god, I am such an idiot._

"Your activation test is today." _Moron._

"Yes." _Why is he stating the obvious? He has been briefed on this as he will be on standby in the event of another episode. _

"Aren't you scared?"

_Why should I be scared? This is my purpose. Besides, I can always be replaced. _"You're Commander Ikari's son, aren't you?"

"Umm.. yeah?" _What's that mean?_

_Well, he claims to be his son. _"Don't you have faith in your father's work?"

Shinji recoiled, stunned. _How can she even ask that? Doesn't she know anything about what he's done to me? How he's treated me?_ "Of course not! How could I? He's no father to me!"

Rei, scowling, spun around, staring the younger Ikari in the face. Shinji, surprised at the expression on her normally expressionless face, only stood there as she raised her hand, and smacked across the face, before spinning around and marching down the rest of the escalator.

Shinji only stood there in silent shock on his face, his hand going to where hers had connected with his face.

_Bwah?_

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji sat in Unit-01, already connected and in synch with the mighty war machine, waiting for the test to get started. He was watching Rei as she moved about the open plug of Unit-00, making her final preparations. The Evangelion, responding to the nerve pulses between his brain and eyes focused in on the girl. He watched in growing envy and anger as he watched his father approach Rei on the catwalk, and begin talking to her as she skipped down and chatted with him, all smiles.

_What the hell? Why does he talk to her and not to me? What's so special about her and not me?_ Shinji didn't notice the temperature in the LCL rising in tune with his mounting anger. He tried to listen in on their conversation, but found that no matter how hard he tried, it was drowned out by the other noises inside the cages. Dejected, he slumped back into his seat in the Throne of the Soul. _This is so unfair. I don't understand any of this._

His thoughts were interrupted by box that popped up, showing Lt. Ibuki. "Hi Shinji! Your synch score just dropped a little, is everything OK?"

Remembering Dr. Akagi's words about responding to questions like that, he forced his voice to remain level and calm. "Everything's fine. Just a little bored."

Maya winked at him. "The test will get started in a little bit, don't worry. If you want, I'll pipe some music into a private comm line for you. It'll be like your own private radio station. You like European Classical stuff, right?"

"You don't have to do that, Lt. Ibuki!"

She winked again, grinning. "It's OK." Her box disappeared, but soon the sounds of Beethoven's 5th Symphony began piping into the Entry Plug.

Turning to the other techs, she pointed to Shinji's score. "Hey, Aoba, can you keep an eye on his score? It dropped five points all of a sudden a minute ago."

Aoba looked up, surprised. "Really? He's been really steady lately."

Maya shook her head. "I think Rei and him had an argument. I saw her slap him on the escalator from the main entrance down to level BB04."

"Really? That's odd. Never would have thought that she'd slap anyone, let alone him."

"Yeah, so keep an eye on his score, OK? I'll be busy with Rei and Unit-00. I've got him listening to some of that music he likes, I guess you can leave it on during the test unless something happens."

"Sure thing."

The audio for the test was being broadcast to both Evangelion Units and the Control Room. Shinji listened in as Dr. Akagi's voice battled for supremacy over Beethoven.

"Initial connections made. No issues detected, all systems read normal. LCL is charged and ionized."

"Primary systems stand ready." Rei's voice was as calm and quiet as normal.

"Proceed." Gendo gave the order, sounding disinterested, barely audible over the audio pickups in the main command room.

"Lowing Plug depth. Secondary connections made. Pulses are flowing normally. Primary hookups are reading as green."

"We have green light from sectors four through nine. Tertiary connections complete."

"Lowering Plug to normal operational depth. Final connections made. We have green lights across the board. Synchronization is reading at 29%"

"Sir, Unit-00 is activated, with no issues. Shall we continue to primary tests?"

"Yes, you may-" Gendo's voice was cut off by an alarm klaxon. Suddenly, Beethoven disappeared.

"We have a Pattern Blue! Matsushiro confirms Pattern Blue! It's an Angel!"

"Will we use Unit-00?"

_No! Please no! Wait... I'll have to do it! Fine! I'll do it!_

"No. Prepare Unit-01. Bring Unit-00 down to standby mode."

The general comm line was cut as the normal battle lines went active.

"Shinji, it's Aoba. There's been a Pattern Blue Confirmed, and-"

"Right. Send me up."

Aoba and the rest of the bridge bunnies blinked in unison.

"Right, you'll be going up out of Gate 43. It's an open street gate."

"Roger. Disconnect from the last restraints, and get a cord from Power Station 43b."

"Right again!" Aoba turned and nodded to Makato, who flipped open the control to launch the catapult. The bespectacled tech flashed a thumbs up to Misato, who shot a final glance to Commander Ikari, who merely nodded.

"Eva Launch!"

Maya's eyes widened as her displays showed something troubling.

"There's a high energy reading inside the Angel!" Shouting, she pulled up one of the camera feeds to display the Angel, a vast, shining blue diamond, that seemed to distort, shaping itself into a new, bizarre shape. At the very center, a bright red sphere could be seen, glowing malevolently.

Misato screamed out to Unit-01 as it rocketed to the surface. "SHINJI! LOOK OUT!"

Shinji did not have time to react as the Evangelion cleared the surface, and all his world turned to bright, blinding pink, and then searing heat and pain.

As he screamed in terrible, gut wrenching agony into the audio pickups in the Entry Plug, Rei's eyes widened in fear and horror.

Underneath his gloves, Gendo Ikari frowned.


	10. Chapter 10

Shinji was screaming as the LCL around him and within him boiled. He was screaming as the pain felt by the biological components of the Evangelion fed back into him through the miracle of Synchronization, that allowed the human component of the mighty war machine to give motive and motion to the colossus. He screamed as he developed what was termed "Sympathetic Injuries" on his chest in the same location as the Fifth Angel, Code Name Ramiel, was hitting the Evangelion with it's directed high energy thermal lance. But mostly, Shinji screamed.

Misato Katsuragi, U.N. Forces rank Captain, Armor Branch, currently seconded to NERV as the Division 3 Operations Commander, theoretically third in command of NERV on a day-to-day basis, tried valiantly to bring order to the chaos in the command room at NERV Central.

"Recover the EVA! Bring the lift back down!"

"We can't! The locks are fused, they've melted shut!"

"Deploying Armor shield!"

A ten foot thick sheet of lead and steel reinforced concrete shot up in-between the Evangelion and Ramiel. The Angel's beam however cut through the armor with the same difficulty that it cut through Unit-01's AT field, which is to say that it went through it like a hot knife through ice cream, melting through the armor block as it rose to it's full height in front of the Evangelion, and then causing it to melt down around the central portion as it continued it's attack unabated.

"Blow the charges for that entire block! Bring that whole section down!"

Lt. Makato threw open the toggle cover for Block 43's demolition charges, and flipped the toggle switch resting within. Blocks of C4 detonated, destroying specific locking clamps that held the immediate area of the lift gate in place, sending part of the street, the catapult lift, and the Evangelion tumbling back down through the shaft.

"Cutting Pilot's Synchronization! Connection's broken! Life-signs negative! Pilot is entering cardiac arrest!"

"Give him a heart massage! Begin defibrillation!" Dr. Akagi shouted as she dashed from the command deck towards the cages to oversee the recovery operation from there.

"Defibrillation started! No response!"

Up above the hurried movements of the command floor, Commander Ikari sat, unmoving from his position, watching the various screens and monitors. Fuyutsuki watched him as he observed the bridge crews' attempts to start his son's heart again. _So cold, watching his son die. Did you anticipate this? If he dies here, what will you do? Will you make the call that you know you must? Even if it costs you your wife?_

"We have response! Cage 3, prepare for impact!"

The limp form of war machine came tumbling down out of the shaft's entrance into the launch area, rolling to a stop against the massive blockade barriers, erected for such an eventuality. A massive crane went into operation immediately, righting the giant and giving access to the Entry Plug, which was in the process of ejecting in response to the commands from the bridge.

"Pilot's life-signs are erratic!" Dr. Akagi called from the cage. "We're taking him to medical! Prepare the ICU!"

Gendo shifted his gaze to the main monitor, watching as the Angel, now back into it's diamond shape, floated over to a section of Tokyo-3's city center, which, miles below, sat over the very pyramid that made up NERV Central's main offices. Miles below this, lay Terminal Dogma, where the object of Ramiel's, and all other Angels, past and future, search lay.

"The Angel is extending a protrusion! It's... It's beginning to drilling into the city!" Lt. Aoba cried out, somewhat confused. "Why isn't it using it's directed energy beam?"

"The Magi are working on it!" Lt. Ibuki, having taken over in the absence of Dr. Akagi, sat at the Magi's main terminal interface, putting the three supercomputers to the task of figuring out the Angel's course of action.

"ICU reports that they have the Third Child! They are beginning preliminary medical screening!"

"The Magi report an estimated time of twelve hours until the drill breaks through into the Geo-Front!"

Gendo stirred finally, pushing his chair away from the desk as he stood. "Captain Katsuragi, come up with a plan to defeat the Angel. Report to me in my office once you have one. You are in command here." He nodded at her salute, and left for his private elevator, Kozo trailing after him.

Misato watched the doors to the elevator shut behind the two men. Whirling around, she glared at the main screen. "OK, Options people, what do we have? Ideas, resources. Let's get to work!" She moved over to join Maya at the Magi terminal. "Have they come up with why it's not burning it's way through the armor plates instead of burning it's way through? It certainly put out enough power when it attacked Unit-01."

"They are withholding judgment right now."

"OK. Makato! Release Rei from Unit-00. She's on tertiary standby right now. Have someone brief her on that. Tell her to get something to eat, or some shut eye."

"Roger!"

"Now, what can we do to test this bastard's abilities?"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei looked up as yet another doctor exited the doors to the ICU ward that held Ikari. The doctor didn't so much as glance at the still plug-suited girl, who reeked of dried LCL. _Perhaps I should attempt gaining entrance once more. Why do they say nothing to me when they exit? Why do they keep me from entering? It is not as if I would attempt to instruct them on what to do. I merely wish to observe. _She watched two nurses as they hurried forth from the room. _It has been one and a quarter hours since they recovered him. Evangelion Unit-01 did not sustain any broken limbs from it's fall back down the exit shaft, so he should be intact as far as that is concerned. The LCL would have protected him from shock and kept him from bouncing around inside the plug itself, so that leaves only wounds from the thermal weapon itself._ Rei had watched in mounting horror as the recovery teams had righted the boy's Evangelion and pulled him from the plug. His skin looked scalded, and they had put him into an oxygen shrouded gurney before rushing him off to medical. When they had her exit Unit-00, and explained that she was on Level-3 Standby, allowing her to move about Central Dogma in either Plug Suit or other clothing, she had ignored suggestions of eating or resting and instead had come to the medical ward in the hopes of observing the medical staff working on Pilot Ikari. Those hopes had been crushed when they kicked her out of the room, and told her to go somewhere else.

_Why am I so... agitated about his current status? Did he not attempt to take the Commander's glasses for his own? Did he not reject me at my apartment? Did he not state that he held no faith in the Commander, or his Work? Did I not physically reprimand him?_

_Hypothesis: I have an unconscious... attraction? desire? for the physical closeness and contact with him. I have not demonstrated this in the past with other subjects, except perhaps the Commander. However, that is due to a loyalty out of the bond of daughter to father, and due to my being party to the Plan. Is this the feelings between siblings? None of the subjects in Class 2A or Classes 1B or 5D or 7E ever commented on such... solicitousness about their siblings before. Observed evidence also suggests that the experiment in the apartment would not have been deemed 'appropriate' contact between siblings by the accepted social norms. Perhaps this is why he did nothing? Does he view me as a sibling? Observed data supports siblings being extremely protective, even violently so, in the defense of siblings. Student Suzahara assaulted Ikari over the fact that his sister had been hurt during the attack. This does not explain his wanting to protect me when he first arrived. He did know that the Commander is my father. _She paused her mental dissection of the reasons behind their interactions as she watched yet another doctor exit the ward and move past her without comment. _I do not believe that he is even aware of our relationship. Otherwise I do not believe he would have been so quick to insult the Commander in such a fashion. So, if he does not view me as a sibling, why then is he so protective of me, if he is not similarly struck by physical attraction? The Commander is attracted to HER, for some reason, so it stands that he should have inherited the proper genetic codes for experiencing physical attraction. Perhaps he inherited his father's unexplainable 'taste' in females?_

Another doctor walked by without comment. _Just how __**many**__ are there of them in that room? _Rei thought irritably. _And why do they continue to say nothing to me? Is it not normal to speak to those waiting outside medical facilities for information on patients to __**actually**__ give them information? What must I do to them to obtain the data that I seek?_

While she began to make plans that included kidnapping the next person to walk out of the room and ignore her, a nurse walked up to her, a clipboard in hand. "Miss Ayanami? What are you doing down here?"

Rei turned her head to woman who addressed her. _It is the nurse who is actually a Section 2 agent. Agent Kokoro. _"I am waiting for information on the current medical status of Pilot Ikari." _Why else would I be wasting my time waiting in a ICU waiting area? There is nothing to do here but wait, appropriately enough. Wait and be ignored by these people with their arbitrary rules on people with higher security clearances than them being inside an ICU when they are working on people that happen to be important experiment subjects, causing them to work with incomplete medical history data when doing Science to them later on. _

Rei had found out the importance of having a complete medical history on her subjects when Student Kensuke Aida went into anaphylatic shock upon being stung by a bee.

"Oh, him! Well, let me go in and see what I can find out for you." Turning to go, she paused and turned back. "Did... did you come straight here from your Evangelion?"

"Yes."

She smiled. "That's so sweet of you. Wait right here, I'll be back in a jiff!"

Rei just stared at the Section 2 agent as she disappeared into the ICU. _Why would I wait elsewhere? Would waiting someplace else have gotten me the information I seek faster? How long is a jiff? I am not familiar with this unit of chronological measurement. I do not see how my arrival here directly from Unit-00 increases how I taste. I also do not see how she would be able to appraise how sweet I taste without actually tasting me with her tongue, and I do not believe I wish that. In addition, LCL tastes like blood, and it not particularity sweet, and since I have not showered to remove it, and it dried on me I suspect that I would taste like blood rather than candy. _She blinked. _Oh, I see. She was using 'sweet' to describe my interest in him as being kind, or suggesting that I am enamored of him. _She shifted her head slightly down to look at the floor as a faint pink tinged her skin. _Perhaps I am enamored of him. I am still unsure if I wish to conduct experiments of physical closeness with him._

_Perhaps I should not be too hasty in disposing of that collar. It would be a waste of resources to discard it without using it for something, after all._

She looked up again, hoping that Agent Kokoro wouldn't notice the fact that she was blushing. Agent Kokoro, being trained to notice and read people's body language, because she was indeed a Section 2 Agent, and not just a nurse, of course noticed. And, being that she was a Section 2 Agent, she made no indication that she noticed.

"Well, they still have him in a LCL bath. He should be coming out of it in about an hour. He'll keep his hair, but he'll have to be careful for about a few weeks with hot liquids and IV exposure on his skin until it completely heals. With the current medication drip, he'll be asleep for the next four hours at least, which is good. Does that help?" She smiled kindly at the blue haired girl, sitting completely still in one of the chairs.

_Does this help with what? While it is the information I sought, it was not for any particular experiment, just updating subject data. _"Yes."

"Well, now, I think that you should go and take a shower then, and get cleaned up. He'll be moved to his room, B301, once out of the LCL bath if they find nothing else wrong with him. You can visit him in there. You know where it is, right?"

"It is three doors further down the same hallway as the room I am assigned when admitted to the Medical Wing." _So we are assigned rooms here, and it is not merely coincidence._

"Yep! So, go on, get out of here. Get something to eat, or get some rest. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they come up with a plan to stop that thing up there."

"Yes." _Why do they keep telling me to go eat? I have not expended enough calories to make my body demand additional fuel._

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato glared at the blue diamond. _Well, I don't think I'll ever say that diamonds are a girl's best friend anymore. __**Another**__ thing to be angry at the Angels about. _"What's the status on the decoy?"

Lt. Makato looked up from his terminal. "The tug should be raising it now." He pointed to the main screen. "There it goes!"

Up on the large view-screen, a small tug was pulling a 1:1 scale inflatable decoy model of Unit-01 towards the Angel. They cut a line, and the decoy's arm swung up, 'aiming' a pistol at the Angel.

"We're getting a high energy reading!"

The Angel shifted it's form again, and fired it's hateful thermal ray at the decoy, vaporizing it and the tug in seconds.

"Now!"

The Type 12 Mk.6 Self-Propelled Mortar, which actually was an artillery piece, rolled out of hiding, and fired an experimental 500mm SABOT projectile at the Angel. The munition itself was considered overkill by many, due to the fact that actual projectile was a 120mm depleted uranium rod, could theoretically tear through more armor than existed on any one target. If there one thing that NERV was known for in the defense sector, however, (besides of course, being NERV and being run by the 'King of all Bastards') was for overkill being their bread, butter, jam, honey and biscuits.

Gendo Ikari Fact #17- God's in his Heaven because he's scared of Gendo Ikari's Superior Firepower.

The Magi had suggested a 68% chance of the rod penetrating the Angel's AT field, which so far had shrugged off dozens of cruise missiles, and several concentrated artillery barrages, of the likes not seen since the trenches of WWI.

The reason they gave it such a high chance was that it should be fast and small enough of a projectile to escape the Angel's thermal weapon. It had fired on all missiles that had been carrying N2 munitions, destroying them from afar instead of letting them break upon the seemingly impenetrable wall of it's AT Field.

Everyone in the control room groaned in disgust as the field flashed into view, **again**, and the SABOT round ricochet off to impact into a mountain. The Angel fired upon the Type 12, vaporizing it just as completely as it had everything else it had shot at that day, with the sole exception of the Evangelion.

Dr. Akagi cursed as she threw her hands up into the air. "The Magi just gave me a busy message. They've got nothing else right now. That SABOT round should have punched right through the damn thing like... like... like a gamma ray through paper!"

_It's really bad when Rits has problems expressing just how unhappy she is with a situation. Almost all she ever does is complain about things._ Misato mused to herself.

_Poor Sempai! She's so stressed, what with working on stabilizing Shinji and trying to come up with a way to break through the AT Field. _Maya watched her supervisor sympathetically.

"OK folks. What else do we have in the labs? I know we've got to have something that packs a ridiculous punch. It's what we do! We're NERV! We don't just grandstand here, we SuperDuperMaxigrandstand. We specialize in making things bigger and better, if for no other reason than we get more money from the U.N. in a month than some countries generate in a year." Misato started pacing back and forth. "What do we have that's just super experimental, and not even weaponised yet?"

Lt. Aoba started scrolling down through his terminal, looking through all NERV funded research projects. "Well... we've got an LHC, about 400 pounds of antimatter, most of it anti-hydrogen, some of it anti-helium."

Misato perked up at the mention of antimatter. She turned to Ritsuko, a manic smile on her face.

Ritsuko, knowing her friend all to well, shook her head. "Don't even think about using antimatter. It's not something that we'd be be able to use. It would need a massive warhead, just to keep the magnetic containment in place until it detonated against the target. The Angel would shoot it from miles away."

Misato's grin became a scowl. "**Damn it!** There's got to be something that we can use." She turned back to the long haired tech. "What's a LHC?"

"It's a Large Hadron Collider. It's a massive particle accelerator. It's currently being used to test particle bombardment on portions of the Fourth Angel's recovered core, to help NERV-03 with S2 research."

"A particle accelerator you say? Don't things have a tendency to explode when they get hit by accelerated particles?"

Ritsuko rolled her eyes. "That **is** the general idea behind a particle beam weapon, yes, Misato."

"So why don't we have one of those?"

"We do. A prototype, anyways. The problem is that the Magi say it's not powerful enough to punch through that AT Field."

Misato's face screwed up into a grimace as she mentally chewed on that information. "Any way that we could use the LHC to power it? Or use the LHC itself?"

"No, it's pretty much stationary. We don't have enough time to disassemble it, move it and reassemble it with the proper modifications."

"Damn. Well, do we know of anyone else that could be working on a particle gun? Maybe we can commander it."

Agent Ken, the Command Deck Section 2 Liaison Officer put down his omnipresent coffee cup. "The JSSDF have been working on a test bed particle cannon. Let me find out the particulars." He sprinted off towards the Section 2 office.

Misato turned and smiled at Ritsuko. "And who says that Section 2 doesn't ever do anything around here?"

Eins, Zwei, Drei Vier!

Gendo looked at Captain Katsuragi over his tented hands. As usual, he let Kozo speak for him.

"You want to commander the JSSDF's particle cannon test bed system, and combine it with our own prototype, and then plug into the national power supply grid to use as an Evangelion sniper weapon, staged at our secondary site at Matsushiro."

"Correct Sir." Misato answered with all the calm, composed confidence that she wasn't currently feeling as she stood alone before her two superiors. _Damn it Rits... You should be in here too, if only as moral support. I seriously doubt they needed you down to supervise moving Shinji from the ICU to his hospital room._ She shifted her weight from foot to foot slightly, feeling the beginning beads of perspiration forming on her forehead. _I don't get it; it's so cold in here, I shouldn't be sweating unless I was on fire!_ _And why is it always so dark? Maybe he really **is** a vampire. It would explain the weird glasses. _

Gendo spoke slowly and evenly, still not shifting from the position of someone watching something because they must, not because they wanted too. "What do the Magi say?"

"They give it a 17% chance of success with two affirmatives and one conditional. It's the plan with the highest chance of success that is workable within our time-frame."

"Then you may proceed, Captain. The fate of Mankind rests on your plan."

Misato bowed, giddy relief threatening to break out as laughter. "Thank you Sir." She turned and left the office as fast as she could without actually breaking into a run. _YES! In your face Ritsuko!  
_

Kozo looked down as Gendo began to page through the report the Captain had delivered with her brief. "How are they going to modify the JSSDF's weapon? If it's powerful enough to punch through the AT Field, why not use it right away?"

"As it is, there is no means to aim the device. The plan is to cobble them together, using our prototype for the aiming and firing mechanisms, and theirs for the power components. Unfortunately, since this is going to be a very power intensive system, the power control devices will most likely fail after successive shots, meaning that for optimum use, they will have to replace the device after each firing. You can see here-", he said as he pointed to a diagram, "where they plan to overcome this issue with the use of a massive solid-state fuse, here, where the chamber analogue is located. They will also have to allow time for the 'barrel' of the weapon to cool, because even though the weapon is a kinetic in nature, and not thermal, due to the massive size of this weapon, the wall resistivity converts electric energy into heat quickly, and if fired for prolonged periods it will experience warpage. This weapon will be the single largest linear particle accelerator yet, several times the length of the former SLAC, which was still the largest in the world when the American west coast was covered in several tens of feet of water during Second Impact."

"So, like a regular sniper, we will have to hope for a one shot, one kill eventuality? I doubt the Angel would let such an attack as this go unpunished."

"Indeed. You will note that the Captain has left her defense plans unmentioned, as of yet."

"She must have something in mind."

"I am sure that she does. It is not without reason that I lobbied for her assignment here. She is quite the capable tactician, and her personnel history with the Angels will ensure that she will do everything in her power to see them slain."

"A happy matter for all, then."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei looked up at Misato as the Captain entered Shinji's room, motioning for her to follow her back out into the hallway. Glancing at the still sleeping boy, she snapped the book she had been reading shut, and placed it on the chair before exiting the room.

Misato watched the boy through the window. "How is he doing Rei?"

"He is currently sleeping off the effects of the drug mixture administered to him to keep him docile during the LCL bath to aid in the repair of the damaged internal and external tissues of the lungs, nose, mouth, throat, in addition to the ears, eyes and skin due to the LCL of his Entry Plug boiling. He developed a minor burn as a sympathetic injury over his sternum, and the doctors state that he should avoid direct exposure to sunlight and hot liquids for the next two to three weeks until his epidermis is completely repaired. It is estimated that he will awaken in two hours, unless he continues to sleep naturally."

_He will remain asleep for another four hours past that if I measured the additional morphine I administered for him correctly. But then, that's none of your business._

"Good. He deserves some rest after what happened." Rei blinked at the Captain's statement, and then blinked again when she clapped a hand on her shoulder. "You know, I'm not surprised that I was told I could find you down here. We'll have to trade notes on him later," Misato winked at the teenager, "but right now you and I need to take a little trip."

Rei blinked again. _We need to trade notes? How does she know that I am taking notes on him? I have no physical notes. I was not aware that she was doing experiments on him as well. In fact, all supportive evidence suggests that she does not even have any sort of working background in Science. How has she managed to hide this from HER? SHE is very good with Science, and she has at several times made free mention that the Captain is 'as thick as a block of wood'. Of course, this as a metaphor for being intellectually challenged is not very effective, as blocks of wood come in all manner of thicknesses._

"I do not wish to leave on a trip, Captain. I would prefer to remain here. The medical ward is within the prescribed limits of a Level-3 Standby Status."

"I know you want to watch over him, and trust me, it's killed me that I haven't been able to check on him sooner, but I had to come up with a way to kill the Angel. The thing is, I'm going to need your help in getting the parts we need."

"I do not understand, Captain. I do not have sufficient authority to be able to obtain items that have been denied to you. Commander Ikari would be the one to appeal to, or Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki."

Misato grinned. "I don't need help like that Rei. You see, the thing of it is..."

As the purple haired Captain described her plan to the blue haired Pilot, Rei felt a new warmth growing within her. The Captain may not have had the interest in science that Rei did, they shared two things in common; a purpose in killing the Angels, and an interest in Shinji. While the latter might cause friction between the two (even if Misato was unaware of it), the former would definitely bring them closer together.

_The Captain's plan... it is GLORIOUS! A masterpiece of Science. I will have to obtain the schematics. Perhaps I should look into expanding my understanding of physics. I may be able to overlook her conducting her own experiments on Ikari, as repayment for this... this... this thing for which my mastery over describing things is not sufficient enough to describe._

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

The JSSDF head of Weapons Development, General Ayumu Hamada, a decorated veteran of the Impact Wars, was not someone who was easily bullied. He was a good leader, and had clawed his way up the ladder in battles both down-range and at the home office. He proud of his rank and position. He also knew that some battles couldn't be won. He knew when to break contact, to use soldier's parlance.

He stared at the U.N. Special Operations Order for Commandeering of Materials Deemed Necessary for the Betterment of Mankind. Directive Z387 was a joke, it was a nonsense directive. Never before had a single one been issued and actually followed through on. They were used as threats; to bring obstinate nations and organizations to the bargaining table. If someone actually tried to enforce such an order, nations would go to war. It was an unenforceable document, and thus powerless.

Until today.

He knew about NERV, of course, for while it might still be relatively new to most of the world, in the Defense Sector, well, they weren't the 500 pound gorilla in the corner. They were the humpback whale in the school swimming pool. Even if he had been ordered by his superiors to ignore the Directive Z387, he couldn't. It wasn't for nothing that NERV titled the Evangelions as 'Mankind's Greatest Fighting Weapon'. He could only say one thing to the purple haired terror, several ranks below him, and one thing only.

"But... this is just so **bizarre**!"

Misato smiled sweetly at the General. "NERV thanks you for your cooperation, General." She turned to face the far wall, and keyed the handmike she wore. "OK, Rei, open her up! Be careful though, it's a piece of delicate machinery!"

General Hamada watched in detached horror as the roof of the warehouse that housed the testbed particle cannon was wrenched off by NERV's yellow cyclopean monstrosity. It reached in with one hand, and plucked the cannon up as easily as he might a cigarette, withdrawing from the warehouse as **it stood up**, moving back to the air field where a NERV cargo plane waited impatiently to whisk several years of work away. He knew, deep within his heart of hearts, that he would never see that cannon again. The whole project was as a good as scrapped because of this.

_I'm going to resign. _His thoughts became morose as he watched the NERV Captain jump back into her jeep and speed off after the yellow giant. _I'm going to resign and go find something else to do that can't be just taken away from me. Damn them. Damn them and their giant robots. Damn them all to hell._

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

When Rei returned to Shinji's room after showering, changing into her school uniform and attending Misato's brief on Operation Yashima, she picked her book, a text on genetic engineering, up and reopened it to the page she ha left off on. She found herself unable to focus on reading, however. Her thoughts kept dragging back to the Operations Director's words from before. Closing her book again, she stared at the boy who was rapidly becoming a source consternation to her.

_He most likely will wish to refuel his body by consuming food upon waking up. I have observed numerous instances where the providing of such food is seen as a sign of affection. _She stood and moved to the door, glancing through the window, and not seeing anyone, poked her head out the door and looked up and down the hall, confirming that the on-duty nurse was sitting at the nurse's station filling out paperwork. She ducked back in, and locked the door.

_Due to the desire to allow his epidermal layers to breath, they did not dress him in the normal hospital gown. _Her eyes flicked to the light-weight bedsheets, drawn up to his mid chest. _This would be a optimum time to experiment with physical contact, to see if the same sensations are available with him being unconscious. _She watched his face, seeing none of the usual stress or tension that plagued his features normally when he was awake. _Why do I feel such apprehension? There is no reason to expect him to wake up at this time. _Her gaze drifted back down, and again the faint pink burned on her delicate features. _I... I must... I must be bold. I must be bold for Science!_

Having made up her mind and worked up her courage, although she didn't recognize it as such, she pulled back the sheet to his mid stomach, the faint pink growing much more pronounced and threatening to become a full fledged red as she felt herself grow warm. _The more bare skin of his that I observe causes an exponential increase in my internal body temperature. While he appears to be skinner than most of the sought-after males in Class 2A, it does not appear that my base physical reactions care about this. _

She darted a last quick look to the door to ensure that no-one had come up to it and was observing her through the window. She idly wished for a curtain of some sort to draw over it, before returning her attention to the prone figure before her.

_As he is currently incapable of initiating contact, I must do it myself._ Unconsciously taking a deep breath, she carefully climbed up onto the hospital bed. Moving so that she was straddling him with her knees, she snaked her arms under his around to his back, and drew him up into a hug, closing her eyes and resting her head on his shoulder. _My internal body temperature is rising at a much higher rate than anticipated. This is much more pleasing than the experiment at my apartment._ She hugged him a little tighter, and moved so that she was resting on his lap. _Oh my._

Shinji, still asleep, mumbled incoherently, and hugged her back, his arms linking around her.

She squeaked, her eyes going wide as she froze. _Did I wake him up? _After a few moments, she relaxed, confidant that he was still sleeping. Unhooking his arms from her, she laid him back down onto the bed before getting off. Gabbing the bedsheet, she tucked it back up to it's prior location, smoothing out the wrinkles. Breathing heavily, she darted for the door, almost forgetting that she had locked it when it refused to open when she pulled on it.

She made her way down to the cafeteria. _I must obtain a movable cart for which to bring him food. I... I think that I will get more than he could probably need. Sharing food is another accepted sign of affection. Also, I will obtain a replacement plug suit for him. He most likely will wish to dress before eating. _Her brow furrowed in frustration. She wasn't feeling too keen on him getting dressed right off the bat. _Perhaps if I am similarly disrobed, he will be content to partake of a shared meal before dressing. _

_I wonder if the Captain has already preformed such an experiment as this on him? _Her previous elation with the Captain's plan, even with the sheer awesome factor Rei had to give to the new Sniper Positron Gun, even if Shinji's higher synch score and familiarity with firearms meant that they had chosen him to be the one to use it, was slipping away. _I do not think that I like the idea of her using him for Science at all. _She pursed her lips as she frowned, not even realizing that she was doing so as she hurried down the corridors. _She might have come up with the idea for the gun, and while the heat resistant ceramic tile and silica areogel shield fashioned from several space shuttles, but I do not like the idea of her messing with my test subject. I will have to find a way to ensure that she does not interfere with or ruin my experiments. She does not get to do Science to him._

It would not be fair to say that Rei felt like this because she didn't like to share her toys, because that would suggest that she ever had toys when growing up. She had a few, pilfered scientific tools, to be sure, but no toys.

As she continued down to the nearest cafeteria in the massive complex that made up NERV Central, she was completely unaware that while she had taken steps to ensure that no one had been watching her from the hallway, or interfering if someone had, she had completely forgotten about the security cameras present in almost all parts of the base, including the medical wing. Such as the camera that was in Shinji's room, tucked unobtrusively in a corner, that kept a careful watch on the son of the Commander. The same camera that fed to that very same Commander's office. That very same Commander, who, despite all outward appearances, against all popular opinion on the matter, still loved and cared for his son. Even if Rei hadn't ever set foot in the boy's room, the camera feed would have been on, to allow Gendo to keep an eye on his boy.

Gendo stared in open-mouthed disbelief at the screen as Kozo pounded his thigh, laughing harder than he remembered doing so in a very long time. Gendo raised a shaking hand to point at the screen. With a slow, deliberate movement, he turned to his oldest friend. "Did... Did you just see what I just thought I saw?"

Kozo, actually crying in mirth now, could only nod his head.

Gendo moved back to stare at his slumbering son, who was blissfully unaware of what had just taken place. "I am the **fucking** master at this. I tell her to think about getting closer to him. I specify that it's not an order. I tell her it's up to her. She hangs out for hours waiting for him to get out of the ICU. She gives him **more** morphine, to ease the pain that she knows that he must be in, as she's felt it so many times before. She can barely tear herself away from his side, even on orders. Just when I'm thinking that I'm going to have to step in and stir the pot, she does the whole 'looking to see if I'm being watched' bit, locks the door, almost pulls him out of the sheets and **hugs **the boy in his sleep."

Kozo, able to talk again, sighed in contentment. "And when he hugged her back, in his sleep. That sound she made. Priceless."

Gendo pulled up another camera feed, watching Rei as she wandered the halls. "I wonder what she's doing now? She looks like she's unhappy with something."

"I don't know about that, but... I'll admit that I had my doubts when he showed up and you told me how you were adjusting the plan. I think this proves you right. They'll do what you've got planned in the end. It's only a matter of time, and keeping them alive until the end."

"It'll make it harder, though. I want them to live so very much." Gendo opened an archived portion of the feed and paused it where the two teenagers shared an embrace, staring at it, memorizing it and committing it to memory. "There's a small chance that they might."

"A very small chance. It's better than no chance, no matter how small."

"Yes. That is my hope. My only hope. I know that we will accomplish the rest. I'm going to have to start distancing myself from Rei a little. I can't be tempted to alter things further."

"You could always go for Plan B." Kozo knew that as long as Plan A had a chance, Gendo wouldn't go for Plan B, barring massively unforeseen circumstances.

"I could, later on, when we've got more names. But they would be targets. Keel would not forgive any of us, no matter how innocent the Pilots, or anyone else might be in the whole matter. Besides, Plan A is still for the best. I accomplish two of my goals, at the least."

"You'll be dead either way. Plan A or Plan B. But I understand. I'd be making the same decision, I think if I were in your shoes. But, it's still can't be easy for you to sacrifice them for the sake of the world, even if you get something out of it."

"I just wish that she had told me about this whole mess with GEHIRN before."

"I wish I had never written that letter of recommendation."

Gendo switched the stilled image off. "It is unfortunate that wishes do not come true."

"Perhaps. The repairs for Unit-01 are complete, and everything is going to schedule as far as the power relay grid is concerned. I don't know about you, but I was wishing for things to move along those lines."

Gendo stared flatly at Kozo. "If I turn the soap opera that is Shinji & Rei's life back on, will you promise to stop making snarky comments?"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji blinked, staring at a ceiling that was rapidly becoming a familiar one. "I'm alive, then."

"Yes."

Startled, he jerked into an upright sitting position to look over to the owner of the voice. "Ayanami?" She was sitting in one of the chairs, a large book in her lap, and a push cart sitting next to her. "How... How long have you been here?"

She watched him silently for a few moments. "I have been here as long as mission requirements permitted." She pulled a small notebook out of her uniform's pocket. "I will now brief you on the Operation Yashima timetable. At 1800 Pilots Ikari and Ayanami will report to the main cages. At 1900, Evangelion Units 00 and 01 will move to the temporary command headquarters at the Matsushiro site. At 2330, Units 00 and 01 will move to attack positions. At 0000, the attack will begin." She paused, looking up into his face, lined with apprehension and worry, all traces of the serene peace she had observed on it before now missing. "You will be briefed on the actual mission parameters upon our arrival at Matsushiro." She closed the note book, setting it and the larger one on the ground next to her chair. She stood and pushed the cart closer, and pulled the cover off, revealing an assortment of sandwiches and fruit, along with several cans of tea. "A meal, before we must report to the cages." Reaching under the cart, she produced a plug suit, still in it's bag. "A new one, for you to wear."

"I'm not hungry."

"We leave in sixty minutes." _No!_ _Eat the food! Eat the food with me._

"Do I really have to fight again?"

"Yes."

"I'm not sure if I can. I don't know if I do it."

"You must." _What is wrong with him? Does he not understand that to not fight is to die? To allow humanity to die?_

He slumped down, looking dejected, shaking his head. "I don't know." he whispered, almost to himself.

She blinked, unsure of the new feelings welling up. In a very rare case of her mouth running before her brain, she spoke, also in a whisper. "Then stay here. I will do it for you. I will go alone." She turned to leave, all thoughts of sharing a meal with him gone, having fled from her mind. If she was to face the Angel Ramiel by herself, the Captain needed to be informed.

Shinji, his eyes wide as the realization of what his sitting this battle out meant, called to her. "No, I'll do it. I can't let you face it alone."

She turned in the door, confused. _What should I say? I have not observed anything coming near to this situation to have a good comparison._ _Perhaps... flirting? Lighten the mood, as it is said?_

"Don't show up looking like that then, Pilot Ikari." _While the idea of piloting the Evangelion nude has been bandied about before, it is not considered viable due to the potential for embarrassment of the pilot in accordance to social norms. Thus, the suggestion of him reporting nude to the cages is an amusing one, as the embarrassment of being nude in public is considered by many to be amusing. Success!_

Shinji stared at her for a moment, not understanding, and then looked down, and realized that he wasn't wearing anything. He shrieked, and grabbed the sheet up about his neck, hiding everything from view once more, with the exception of his face, which was turning bright red. "Sorry! Sorry... can you leave?"

_No success? The mood seems to not have been lightened. This is disappointing. I need to figure out what went wrong. I shall have to pay more attention to others when they engage in the flirting._

"I... I will go. I will meet you in the cages." She stop in the door, looking back. "You should eat something." She turned and left, quietly closing the door behind her.

Author's Notes:

Wow. OK, so this battle with Ramiel is what kicked off this whole idea in my head. I was watching Rebuild 1.11, and at the point when Shinji's been blasted by Ramiel's counter-sniper shot, and he's all screaming in pain and whatnot, when Gendo orders Rei to take the gun and take the shot herself, and Misato asks for him to have some faith in his son, just there in my mind I hear reply, all cool as a cucumber, "But Captain, I have nothing but faith in my son."

From there I just couldn't get the idea of a Gendo who loves his son, and had nothing but faith in him, but is still willing to sacrifice him to halt Impact. So I started watching the original series again, looking at how it worked in, and with a few tweaks, some added conversation where there wasn't any viewed or overheard bits before, it could work.

So I started to write it. The original plan was to focus totally on Gendo, and how his faith in his son to be able to pull through and do the impossible worked together with his plan to stop Seele.

We know that Yui was with Seele before Gendo, or at least that was the vibe that I got when watching the show. So I figure, he's dating this chick he digs, and then, bam! She casually drops Seele's plans to cause Armageddon. He's shocked, outraged, and wants to stop this, but he's just a guy from the wrong side of the tracks. He's got no way he can stop this from occurring, even if he killed as many of the people as he could who were involved in it. So he joins forces with them, hoping to put his own talents in understanding people and manipulating them in order to get to a position where he can stop them. Along the way he marries his girl, and they have a son. He begins to build his power base, bringing in her old professor on board with Seele, if not letting him know just what he's up too just yet.

Then comes the infamous contact experiment. Gendo, crushed that she would throw him and Shinji away to achieve immortality as a eternal monument as proof of mankind's existence, he begins his new plan; what he's currently working on right now. (It's Plan A) It does involve getting to Yui, but more importantly is that it involves stopping 3rd impact and removing all of Seele, for good. After Shinji is brought back into close proximity to him again, he decides to change things a little, and now instead of yeah, all the little lambs are dead, there's a tiny chance that they might get through alive. Slim, but it's there. They'll need massive amounts of therapy to undo the mindfuck that he put them through getting them there, but hey, they're alive, right?

As for SCIENCE!Rei/GLaDOS!Rei, well I'm not sure as to just where the hell she came from. I just sat down to write chapter 3 and bam! Out of nowhere, here she comes. I'm glad that other people like her as much as I do. Originally, everyone else was going to be almost the same as canon, with as few modifications as I could work. Obviously, Rei and her internal thoughts are going to take a more active role than I had originally planned. Plus, I love the idea of a 5 year old Rei poking a multitude of things with her stick of Science. She always capitalizes it.

Gendo Ikari Facts. Yes, they are a little contrived, but let's face it, Gendo Ikari is to intimidation and stares as Chuck Norris is to Martial Arts and Roundhouse Kicks. As much as I might wish that I had the brilliant idea of putting Gendo in the place of the bearded ninja, well, that honor goes to the supremely talented Gregg Landsman, who graciously allowed me to borrow this story mechanic.

So, tl;dr:

Gendo: good guy, but still an asshole, and is still a flawed human being.

SCIENCE!Rei: not originally planned.

G.I. Facts: Borrowed from Gregg Landsman, and if you're not already reading his stuff, you should be.


	11. Chapter 11

Shinji stared at top his Evangelion's head, deep in thought. _It looks as beat up as I feel. _New armor plates had been installed, the dull gray of the as of yet unpainted metal somehow giving the Evangelion a different... air, a different feeling. He couldn't really explain it to himself, let alone put it into words. On some of the original plates that remained, the purple paint job had been burned off on the front, while on the back it had bubbled and begun to melt. The whole thing was a mess. _I guess they patched you up as much as they did me... _He rubbed the back of his head, feeling a throbbing pulse beginning to grow. _I wonder how much this headache has to do with being fried with a death ray or trying to figure Ayanami out. _After her last remark to him, she had disappeared into her entry plug and refused to talk to him. He sighed. _I don't understand her at all. Why was she waiting in my room for me to wake up? And why does she seem to switch back and forth on things so much? I thought she was mad at me about my father earlier, and then she offers to take my spot on the mission? And why hasn't she said anything about what happened at her apartment? _His hand reflexively curled in response to his mind wandering to what it had been holding much earlier in the day.

What he, and none of the attending tech staff, didn't notice, as it was currently submerged under LCL, was the right hand of Unit-01 also flexing.

One of the few techs remaing at Central HQ and having not yet gone to the temporary HQ at Matsushiro came up and clapped a hand on the boy's shoulder, startling him from his daydream.

"Alright kid, it's showtime. Once you get into the plug, we'll get this show started. We've got the escort truck already on the surface for you two to follow. We can't take the chance of any aircraft drawing that thing's attention to you."

Shinji nodded, he had been given this brief already once he got to the cages. He climbed up into the waiting plug, already partially inserted. It was, as the tech had said, time to go.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Several teenagers, both boys and girls, waited at a popular scenic overlook spot in one of the parks, waiting. One of them, wearing a tracksuit, sighed as he looked at his watch. "Seriously, Ken, what are we out here for? I want to get back to the shelter." He chanced a glance at Hikari, who also waited, looking out over the quiet park and city. "It's bad luck hanging around up here."

Kensuke, however, refused to let his friend's dour attitude ruin his chipper one. "I'm telling you, my sources say that there's a temporary base set up at Matsushiro, and that the Evangelion will be deployed there against the Angel!" He glanced at his watch. "This is where I was told to be, and at this time."

Hikari rolled her eyes at the mention of the nerdy boy's 'sources'. "Just who gave out this information? It seems like that's a serious breech of security."

Kensuke was about to answer, when a great klaxon began to sound. Several of the other attending teenagers pointed to a forested hillside that seemed to open and give way.

"Look! The entire hillside is moving!"

"Wow, look! It's the purple robot!"

Then, much to everyone's surprise, a second robot appeared, visibly different from the now familiar visage of the first, the newcomer having no horn, and only one eye in it's blocky looking helmet.

Everyone's jaw dropped as the two behemoths began to move out, following a large truck.

Toji prodded Hikari, if only because she was the only person in arm's reach. "Do... do you see **two** of them?"

Dumbstruck, she let the pokes to her ribs pass without comment, both to the boy and to herself. "If Shinji's in the purple one, who's in the yellow one?"

As Kensuke ignored them both, taking as many pictures as he could of the two mighty machines, his two friends shared a look.

Hikari was the first to speak. "It could be..." She trailed off, unable to finish the thought.

"It would make a lot of sense. I mean, she's gone a lot..."

"And they do seem to be awfully familiar with each other..."

Toji clapped a hand to his head. "Oh, man... wait! When we got in trouble... when we told them we were looking for Ayanami, they focused on that for a few minutes and then left. We waited there in the questioning area for like an hour before they came back. They probably were trying to figure what to tell us! They didn't seemed that worried about her being all left on the surface during the fight, because they knew where she was all along!"

Hikari nodded. "It would also explain why she lives alone... and where she does."

Toji shot her a questioning look. "What's that mean?"

She shook her head, embarrassed to be gossiping about the shy, blue haired girl who apparently was a pilot like their other shy friend. "Forget I said anything."

He shrugged, turning to watch them as they marched off into the sunset. "How bad do you think it is if they need two of those things to deal with it?"

"I don't know. This is the longest there's been an alert." She suddenly started looking around, as if remembering that they were all supposed to still be down inside the shelter.

"Do you think that she got hurt fighting one of those things? I mean, there's no way for us to know if any of the alerts are drills or not, and there were some pretty long ones even before Shinji came here. Maybe that's why they brought him in, because she got hurt in a fight."

"She has been in several... accidents... that no-one's ever been around to witness. They could just be cover-up stories." She paused, thinking hard. "And I don't think that I've ever seen her in the shelters with us. **Ever**. I mean, I know that she's shy and kinda fades into the background, but..."

Toji nodded in agreement. "Yeah. I mean, we only noticed it that one time because we were worried... about... well, you know."

As the giants faded into the distance, Hikari clapped, startling everyone. "OK, show's over! Let's get back underground before we all get in trouble!"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji stared at the massive sniper rifle. "What is that?" His voice was one part incredulous, one part wary, and one part... hungry.

_He is definitely interested in the sniper rifle. _Rei allowed herself the smallest feeling of satisfaction. _This should smooth over any remaining qualms he has about participating in the battle to come. _

"It is the combination of the NERV Test Type Positron rifle, and the JSSDF's Positron Cannon. Tech Division 1 has combined them together to make what you see here, which is currently being called the Test Type Mark 3 Positron Sniper." Rei duly informed her fellow pilot of the designation of the massive weapon, which was longer than the Evangelions were tall. "It combines the more robust manufacture and increased power handling capabilities of the Positron Cannon with the Evangelion Interface Link-Up Array, which will allow you to interface with the weapon's on-board targeting computers and make the shot with which you will smite the Enemy."

Shinji, still staring in wonder at the sniper rifle, shot his eyes over to the girl. "What?" _Smite the Enemy? Huh?_

Rei, embarrassed at her slip up in wording her response, rolled right along into the next part of the brief. "You have been selected to serve as the gunner on this mission. While all of the damage to Unit-01 has not yet been repaired, your higher synch ratio and your increased familiarity with firearms in general, and with rifles in particular has caused the Operations Director to select you to fill the role of the gunner in this mission. I will acting as a shield holder, in the event that the enemy is able to fire off a shot at the sniper position."

Shinji was only confused by this. "A shield holder?"

"Tech Division 1 has constructed a shield made partially from the hulls of several decommissioned space shuttles. The heat resistant ceramic plates, combined with an areogel, should be able to withstand and dissipate the thermal energy weapon the Angel struck you with. Estimated time of usefulness is around twenty seconds. In other words, I will be protecting you."

"What...what happens if it shoots more than twenty seconds? What if time runs out?"

"Then I will shield you with the body of Unit-00."

"But that's suicide! You'll be killed!"

"If I die, I can be replaced. The Angel must be destroyed."

Shinji could only stare at her, horrified at the calm manner in which she declared that she accepted her death, so long as the Angel was killed. _How can she be so cold about her death? Isn't she worried at all? _

Rei, misunderstanding the reason for his silence, turned her gaze from the boy back to the positron rifle. "You will be fine, Ikari. I will protect you." She turned and left for the building that had been set up as a waiting room for the pilots.

Shinji watched as she walked off, lost in his own thoughts. He stood there, oblivious to the world, and did not hear the Captain walking up behind him until she put her arms around him and drew him into a hug.

"I'm so glad you're OK, Shinji. Did Rei give you the mission brief yet? Since she was so insistent on staying in your room, I left it with her to bring you up to speed on what's going to go on."

Shinji snapped back to reality. "Yeah, she told me the plan... I'm going to be a sniper using the rifle... Was she really waiting in my room?" _Why would she just wait in there? I mean... does this mean she __**likes**__ me? But what about before? At her apartment? What was that all about... and the escalator?_

Misato stepped on his thoughts. "Yes, she didn't even want to leave when I took her to go get the cannon from the JSSDF. She was real insistent about sticking near you. The doctors in the ICU told me that they even had to kick her out of the operating theater while they were working..." She trailed off, watching her ward with a careful eye. _These two are retarded for each other. It's kinda cute, if it wasn't so depressing. They're so shut off from the rest of the world that neither will take the first step. They're both so passive about this that it's sickening. _She smiled as she tousled his hair. "You know, you should take her out to dinner or something after this is all over. A celebratory meal. If protecting mankind and ensuring it's continued survival isn't something to celebrate, I don't know what is."

"Dinner?" Shinji's brain commenced a strategic shut down.

"Yeah, a dinner! Now, you've still got some time before you need to suit back up and get in the Evas, so you should go get some shut eye. Taking a nap never hurt before an operation!" She pushed him off in the general direction of the waiting building.

Watching him close the door behind him, she turned towards the city, watching the Angel sat, bathed in lights, slowly boring it's way into the Geo-Front. Apart from the Matsushiro site and the few lights trained on the Angel within Tokyo-3, almost all of the rest of the surrounding countryside was dark, all available power being shunted into the power feeds that trailed literally all across the nation into Matsushiro, a winding, glowing snake. She was sure that it would look pretty neat from space. _I'll have to see if NERV can get satellite photos of it for later. _

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji sat in the Entry Plug of Unit-01, locked into position with the sniper rifle. He had already killed motive power to the main body, and all that was left that could move was the fingers on the right hand. He watched the Angel through the simulated cross-hairs on his display. He ignored radio chatter of the techs, pushing it to the back of his mind as he watched his target.

_A bond, to everyone. That's why she pilots. But she never does anything with anyone, not really. How can she feel such a bond, an obligation to protect them if she never participates in activities with the people she fights for? _The conversation the two had shared before entering their Evangelions still troubled him. _If I pilot to protect her, but never do anything with her, does that make us the same? She seems so calm about meeting her death. How can she say that she can be replaced? Does she think that another pilot could... could... replace her to me? Maybe to my father, to NERV, but to me? Is that what she thinks?_

His targeting computer beeped at him, letting him know it had started to get a lock on the target. Pushing his troubled thoughts of Rei to the back of his mind, began to focus on the task at hand. It was no different that another day at the range, he told himself.

_Breathe in, breath out. Watch the target, position it in the center, breathe in, breath out, pull the trigger, breath in. Center the target, pull the switch. Breathe. _His mantra ran through his head, even as his breathing pattern slowed down, as he entered what was commonly known as 'the zone', and more properly by it's psychological term, the flow. He was totally immersed in the task at hand.

Maya frowned as she watched the Pilot's Synch Ratios at the top of her terminal. She waved Huga and Shigeru over. "Hey guys, take a look at this. Rei's sitting at a steady thirty-five percent, but Shinji's ratio keeps creeping up a point every minute. He's been doing that for about eight minutes now. Look- there it goes again!"

The bridge bunnies watched his score mark go up one percent, and then about a minute later, another one.

Huga tapped another display. "His breathing rate's pretty even. All other signals are normal. It can't be a sensor error."

"But why does it keep going up? He's sitting at fifty-six percent right now! It's supposed to sit at a steady rate, unless he experiences physical trauma or emotional upset. This isn't normal."

Shigeru flipped open a line to Unit-01, keeping their mikes turned off. He dialed up the volume as they heard Shinji mummering in the LCL.

"Center the target, and pull the switch. Breathe. Center the target, and pull the switch. Breathe."

He cut the volume and closed the line, shrugging. "Sounds like he's meditating. Maybe meditation helps with synchronization? Something to keep in mind for later I guess."

Maya's frown deepened. "That's not like any sort of meditative chant I've ever heard of. Meditation is supposed to be peaceful, helping a person to find zen. "

"So long as he's focused on the taking down the Angel, and his ratio doesn't drop, what do we care?"

The philosophical debate that was about to get underway was cut short as the final lights on the power feed board went green, and a tech poked his head into the van. "All final checks are done! She's ready to go!"

Misato grinned as she keyed her mike to the pilots. "All right, we are green to go! Shinji, lock the Angel in your sights, and wait for the targeting computers to lock."

"Roger!"

"Rei, stand by with the shield. Use your discretion if you need to deploy."

"Roger."

The normal bridge crew watched the video feed as the targeting computers made final adjustments for gravity and magnetic fields, before signaling the target lock with a high pitched tone.

"FIRE!"

Shinji pulled the trigger switch on the butterfly handles of his control yoke, and watched through the targeting hood as the highly accelerated hydrogen anions tore a path to their target, moving so fast that the air around them ionized, glowing blue. However, despite the almost impossibly fast speeds at which they traveled, they were not fast enough.

"High energy output from the ANGEL! IT"S RETURNING FIRE!"

The two beams, one an otherworldly thermal beam, and the other a beam of super-accelerated hydrogen particles, interacted with each other in ways that the human sensor equipment was not desgined to observe. The gross physical reaction however, was visible to even the human eye, as both energy beams went wide.

The Angel's weapon bathed the mountain side in fire, and smashed Unit-01 and it's rifle from the sniper position, sending it flying down the terraced walls, it's pilot screaming in rage and pain as the armor once again began to melt, and the temperature of the LCL rose.

The Angel was knocked to the side as the hydrogen particles smashed through it's AT Field almost effortlessly, and them smashed into it's armored side, transferring massive amounts of kinetic energy into a spot barely larger than an atom.

The Angel screamed, a deafening fingernails on chalkboard sound combined with glass breaking and scratching that could be heard for miles around. Thick, viscous 'blood' sprayed out the back of the Angel as it tried to righten itself.

Dr. Akagi shouted over the din inside the command van. "It's not dead! Unit-01, get back to the firing position!"

They could only hear the screams of the pilot over the comms.

Shinji, inside his plug, wasn't even aware that he screamed. He, with a thought, returned motive power to the massive body of his chariot, and began to right himself.

Gendo watched the ineffectual movements of Unit-01 on the main display inside NERV HQ. He cut the audio feed from the Evangelion.

"Unit-00, take the rifle and make the shot. The pilot of Unit-01 is useless right now."

Misato could barely contain her shock. _WHAT? He's getting up right now!_

"Sir, please let Unit-01 take the shot! He's getting into position. All I'm asking is for you to show some faith in your son!"

Alone in the command deck, with the exception of Kozo, Gendo smiled openly. It was a grim smile, one of cold mirth as he laughed at the world. "But Captain, Faith is all I have in him." He cut the line to the secondary command site, and leaned back into his chair.

Kozo lifted an eyebrow. "Is that a wise deceleration to make? Rather out of character for you, don't you think?"

Gendo waved a hand at the screen. "Either it won't matter because we're all dead, or it won't matter because we aren't. Anyone who heard it will forget it in the celebratory debauchery."

Misato, stared at the speaker grill in shock. _What did he say?_

Huga shouted, drawing her attention back to the battle. "He's back in position! Fuse has been ejected. Second fuse is inserted, barrel cooling has begun!"

Maya called out from her station, one hand clutching her bleeding scalp, even as she worked. "Power feeds reconnected. Power buildup in progress, particle acceleration started! Thirty seconds until fire output!"

Inside the plug, Shinji noted the weapon's on-board firing computers were not responding to his commands. Immediately, he threw the targeting hood back, and sighted down the length of the weapon, focusing on the Angel beyond, even though there were no backup fixed hard sights.

_Breathe. Center the target, breathe, pull the switch. Breathe. Center the target, pull the switch. Breathe. Center the target, pull the switch. Breathe. Center the target, pull the switch. Breathe. Center-_

As he waited for the ready tone to sound, his eyes widened as a glow began to form along the Angel's side.

"Twenty-five seconds! OH NO! There's a high energy reading inside the Angel!" Maya's voice cried out in terror.

Misato screamed in impotent fury. "NOT NOW! NOT AGAIN!"

Light once again bathed the hillside, but even as he flinched inside the plug, he did not feel the heat or fury of the Angel's weapon. Shinji looked up to see Unit-00, holding it's shield in front of it, fire and energy spraying off around them. He forced his eyes to the countdown timer. Twenty Seconds.

_Hurry..Hurry..._ He sighted in onto where the Angel would be, past Rei and her shield, now screaming his mantra as he waited.

_This is not going well. _Rei noted to herself, as she watched the shield as it began to glow in her hands. _This is not going well at all. I do not think that this shield will last the estimated twenty seconds. _She shifted her eyes back to the small display box that showed Unit-01, as it lay behind her in the sniper position, her thoughts running to it's pilot._ I never did ascertain if he pilots to protect me, even if it is the most likely reason. I do not think that he feels a bond to the world, or even to his father. It is strange that he feels such dislike for the Commander, while I feel such an attachment._ _I wonder if my replacement will feel the same physical attraction to him that I do. I wonder what she will think of the lab next door. Will they talk about why they pilot? Will they speak of other things? _She felt a sudden stab of jealously, however irrational she viewed it, at the thought of the third incarnation of herself enjoying a chat with Ikari.

_Will she understand why we have a cat's collar with a bell on it? I never did get to see what he looks like with one, even if he is not a scaredy-cat. _

She gasped as the shield came apart in her hands, and true to her promise, held herself in-front of Unit-01 as she began to cry out in pain as the unforgiving thermal beam hit her full on.

Shinji's eyes widened as he saw Rei's Evangelion stagger back under the same onslaught he had felt, some hours before. He pushed his gaze back onto the Angel, feeling his hate and anger shoot through the roof.

_Breathe. Center the target, pull the switch. Breathe. Center the target, pull the switch. Breathe. Center the target, pull the switch. Breathe. Center the target, pull the switch. Breathe. Center the target, pull the switch. Breathe. Center the target, pull the switch._

He heard the tone, and pulled the trigger, his target, the hated Angel, firmly centered.

The anions slammed through the Angel once more, and blew out the back, as they had done on the first shot, but now the Angel's core was hit, the kinetic force shattering the glowing red sphere that lay in the center of the blue diamond armor.

The Angel's death scream was no less horrific, and then the blue armor shattered, falling to the ground in a rain of razor sharp fragments. Shinji watched the target fall apart, and then ditched the rifle, flinging the Evangelion to it's feet, and bounded over to the fallen Unit-00, still steaming from the onslaught.

He ripped the power cable from the back, and dunked the Eva into the waters of the lake behind the dam, all the while trying to raise Rei on the comm lines.

"Ayanami! Ayanami! Are you OK?"

Ripping the back armor off, he pulled the entry plug from within the body, and set it down along the beach. Kneeling, he held Unit-01 in minimum gain mode, and eject his own plug, and rushed down the arm, jumping the last ten feet, staggering off towards the plug. He grabbed the bars of the emergency door release, howling as the plugsuit's hands melted into his skin, and then as his skin began to burn.

Wrenching the door open, finally, he was bathed in a shower of hot LCL. Gasping, he climbed into the plug, stopping once he saw Rei coughing up LCL.

"Ayanami! You're OK! Oh, God, are you hurt?" He began to cry joyfully, as the confused girl looked up at him.

_He is here... like the Commander was... his hands... they are hurt too... but he is otherwise unharmed by the Angel. He is crying... why? I am happy to see him, but how is this possible?_

_He must have pulled the plug from the Evangelion!_

"-and don't just say good bye when you leave for a mission! It's just too sad! It's like you expect to die."

"I...I'm sorry, but I don't know what to do or say at a time like this." _I do not believe I have ever witnessed anything that could be compared to this. Maybe a rescue at an accident would have provided sufficient data. What should I do?_

Shinji smiled through his tears. "Just... just.. smile. You're all right, we're alive, so... smile."

She blinked at him, and rather tentatively, smiled at him, not the somewhat manic grin she sometimes had when doing her experiments in her lab, or the small smile she wasn't aware she held when she daydreamed about putting a cat's collar on Shinji, but a shy, soft smile, the first one she gave to someone other than the Commander. She felt her heart flutter as she smiled at him.

He held a hand out to her. "Come on, let's get out of here. The medical teams should be on the way, we can meet them."

_His hand is burned, but not badly. I do not think it will scar._

She grasped his hand, and they started to walk up the beach, leaving the smoking forms of their chariots behind.

Shinji, riding an adrenaline high the likes of which he had never ridden before, turned his head to his companion. "Would you like to go have dinner somewhere? To celebrate, I mean."

She nodded. "It is customary to celebrate after a victory. That would be... nice."

Still holding hands, they made their way towards the ambulances racing towards them.


	12. Chapter 12

In the darkness, a man's voice is heard, reading off a list of numbers. His tone is clinical and disinterested, with nothing invested in the subject matter being read. The numbers being discussed are related towards the budget concerns of the Evangelion Project and the costs of Operation Yashima on top of the normal costs related to the operation of NERV itself. The numbers are so large that there is no easy way to put it into perspective, the costs that have been run up being more than what several industrialized countries saw as a gross national product in the course of a year. Never has such an amount of money ever been physically seen, it is that large.

Another man's voice, this one infuriated and full of outrage, demands to know why Gendo allows such waste to occur. It is made clear to the assembled men that entire nations of people starve because there is no money for food with which to feed them. People die from diseases cured years ago, because there is no money for vaccinations and health care.

As clinical and disinterested as the first man's voice was, Gendo's tone was even more detached when he deigned to reply, sitting there in his seat, as unreadable and implacable as a mountain.

"It was the only way to defeat the Angel."

It was not said as an excuse, nor as an apology. Gendo Ikari never gave either, to anyone. It was simply the statement of a fact, as if stating that the earth revolved around the sun; or that a man required oxygen to breath. If one could ever think of Gendo being interested in anything, one might accuse him of being bored of this meeting, such was the tone of his response.

In truth, he was bored of this meeting, and all such meetings with the old men that made up the Human Instrumentality Committee, and their hidden masters, SEELE. The meetings always followed the same format, but both SEELE and Gendo knew that there would always be more money to throw into the black project that was NERV. Some, those on the committee who were not in the loop, not party to the particulars of the master plan of they who pulled their puppet strings, might think that there was any actual threat to money being shunted away from his project, but they were fools.

They would list the costs of defending mankind, demand that he not waste money in his attempts to do so, threaten to shunt funds away from him, and then tell him that the rest of the meeting did not concern him.

It always was the same. Oh, of course there were the occasional cries of nepotism, what with Katsuragi's daughter, Akagi's daughter and his own son being part of NERV, but that novelty had run it's course, and could no longer even amuse him slightly.

After they had killed his connection to them, he sat alone in the dark, still positioned with his hands folded in front of his face, staring at nothing while his mind worked.

They had said nothing of the Jet Alone project, despite the fact that the ridiculous excuse for a combat device was nearing it's first public display. In fact, they had never mentioned it once, not from it's inception, throughout it's development, and they probably wouldn't remark on it even after the first demonstrations.

Gendo, who employed more spies than both the United States and the Soviet Union during the height of the so called "Cold War" and all sides of WWII combined, had known about the JA project from the moment the JSSDF had authorized initial funding. He had design staff, construction crews and even janitorial staff on his payroll.

They were obviously hoping to surprise him when it was revealed, to show that he was not the only one who could field weapons to bring the Angels down. To show him that he was, in fact, replaceable. That they did not need the Evangelion Project.

He knew, as SEELE knew, that this was a fallacy. The only way for SEELE to realize it's ultimate goal, the assumption of the mantle of godhood, was through the Evangelion Project. Instrumentality could only be achieved with an Evangelion. So, while this Jet Alone was not a significant obstacle to him, it was still an obstacle to be dealt with. If his aims were to be realized however, NERV had to retain complete and total autonomy, and had to be publicly seen as the sole organization that could defend humanity from the Angels.

Gendo Ikari had one response to obstacles in his path. Some might say that he steamrolled over obstacles, leaving nothing behind in his wake but flat terrain. While it was true that after he passed an obstacle, there was nothing left, he would not liken the process to a steamroller. He used both speed and overwhelming force, striking suddenly and swiftly.

In other words, Gendo Ikari blitzkrieged.

Tired of standing in the shadows, Kozo coughed slightly. The seated man did not stir, but it was clear that after a moment, all his attention was on the older man. Kozo imagined to himself that he felt the air around him grow colder.

"Are we done waiting here in the darkness like two spiders? I ask only because I feel like my knees are going to lock up, and I'd rather not deal with that right now."

Gendo grunted, but pushed away from the table and stood up. "They said nothing of the Jet Alone project."

"I noticed that, yes. If they are still on schedule, they should be sending out invitations to their public demonstration here in a week or two, yes?"

Gendo grunted again as they stepped out of the dark room used for the long distance conversations with the Committee and SEELE, and into the well light corridor leading back to his office. "They are still on schedule. Dr. Akagi and Captain Katsuragi will both be attending the demonstration, representing NERV."

Kozo nodded to some lower ranked members of NERV as they passed by. Gendo didn't act as if he even saw them.

"Everything is in place for the demonstration. A remote controlled device that cannot be controlled is of no use to anyone. It is more a liability than anything else."

"So you are still going with plan a, then." The old professor stated a fact, not unlike the commander a short while ago. There was no question in his comment.

"Yes. If they begin evacuation when the situation becomes clear, casualties should be kept to a minimum. They will be refugees, but then, there are so many refugees in this world and another city's worth will be a small drop in the ocean."

"And if they do not?" Kozo asked his one time student, playing devil's advocate.

"Then people will die." Gendo pulled a report from the stack of paperwork on his desk and flipped it open, beginning to read. It was a status update on the progress of Unit-02 in Germany. Carefully encoded in the report was another report, about the status of the spy's plan to steal ADAM from the SEELE laboratory. Everything was on track, according to both reports.

Fuyutsuki stood again, and left for his own office, some floors down. He would review the reports sitting on his own desk, most of them relating to the last battle with the Angel Ramiel, already a week past. Once he was done, however, he would be free to take a nap. When Ikari was here, there really was little for him to do on a daily basis. Which he felt was a good thing, because he wasn't entirely sure that he could give the order to send a mobile nuclear reactor that was melting down into the middle of a densely populated city so calmly and without hesitation.

Gendo Ikari Fact #2: When you stare into the Abyss, the Abyss stares into you. When Gendo Ikari stares into the Abyss, the Abyss gets nervous.

It is perhaps that he was lost in his thoughts, which, considering the weighty nature of the thoughts he had to think on a daily basis, working as a double agent in Ikari's war against SEELE, that he only nodded in passing to the blue haired test pilot as she exited Captain Katsuragi's office. It wasn't until he had taken a seat in his chair that that fact caught up with him, causing him to start.

_What was she doing in the Captain's office? What is she even doing here at Central today? _A quick glance at the calendar showed that yes, there indeed no tests scheduled for today, and that her next 'image' download wasn't until the beginning of next week. _I don't think I've ever seen here when she wasn't scheduled to be here before. Did the Captain want to talk to her about something?_ He groaned, rubbing his forehead. _They were talking about the boy. Of course. Once again, Ikari whistles a tune and people jump up to dance to it._ Shaking his head in disgusted disbelief, he got to work.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Captain Katsuragi, or, as she often would tell people to call her, Misato, was busy with what she considered the worst part of her job; the seemingly unending paperwork. She had to stay on top of the repair and maintenance schedules for the Evangelions, keep track of ammunition supplies for various weapons systems directly used by the cyborgs (thankfully, she didn't need to keep track of supplies for the hard-point city defenses, that was handled by another captain who kept her appraised of the overall status and provided a detailed breakdown when she requested it), the maintenance of the Evangelion weapons systems, and more. So, even during the interludes in between Angel attacks, she was hard at work in the office making sure that she could effectively field the troops assigned to her. It made her yearn for the days when she was just a lieutenant in the armor corps of the JSSDF, in command of just a tank platoon. _Maybe I'll hit up the gym later today for some stress relief. _She looked up when she heard her office door open and close, and blinked a few times, not sure if she was actually seeing who she thought she was. She shot a look to her calendar, only to confirm that there were no tests scheduled for today. She looked back to her visitor, who was quietly standing there in front of her desk.

Confused, she still forced a cheerful tone. "Hello Rei! Can I help you? They didn't schedule a synch test and forget to tell me about it did they?" _Of course, if that was the case, Rits would be down here yelling my ear off._

"Captain, I am here to compare notes with you on Pilot Ikari, as you requested last week."

Misato stared at the girl, not understanding at first, then recalling what she was talking about. "Oh! Ohhh... OK." _She wants to talk about Shinji! _A mix of apprehension and a thrill of girlish delight ran through Misato. It had been a longtime indeed since she had last gossiped about boys with someone, but... this was Rei. She definitely did not seem the type to want to gossip about boys, even if you looked at their age disparity, and... it was Rei. Rei, who wanted to talk about Shinji. Still, it was at least a temporary diversion from the monotony of the paperwork that she was wading through, and it might give her something new to tease her ward with when she went home.

"Let's go get something to drink while we gossip then, shall we?" Misato asked with a wink as she made her way to the door. Rei followed her silently down the hall to the alcove that housed several vending machines. Misato swiped her card over the sensor and retrieved several cans of tea and a small package of blueberry muffins, but all Rei selected for herself was a bottle of water.

"Are you sure that's all you want?"

"It is sufficient."

Misato rolled her eyes. "Sure, it might be sufficient, but it might as well taste good. Besides, you can't have a good gossip session with just water!"

_Gossip session? She must mean the exchanging of notes and comparison of observed data. But... I have observed other students 'gossiping' before, and there seems to be very little Scientific Data being discussed at all. It seemed very... frivolous. However, a large majority of these 'gossip sessions' did occur during the lunch period, and were accompanied by various drinks and food. Perhaps it is a prerequisite for a mutely beneficial exchange of information? I wonder if I should have paid more attention to some of these sessions. Wait... perhaps there is some sort of stigma associated with ordering only water when there are other beverages available? That would explain Ikari's behavior during dinner..._

Rei, deciding that she had something else to experiment on, decided to obtain a basis on which to work with, and selected two teas and a package of snack cookies, to Misato's approval. Provisions in hand, they returned to the office. Misato waved Rei to the low couch next to the door, and cleared the center of her desk for her items.

Grinning at the girl, she popped the tab on one can. "So, I've been meaning to ask him about that date you two went on a few days ago..."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"Dude, come on. You can tell us, we won't blow her cover. We saw two of those things! Two! Just confirm it, that's all."

Shinji shook his head. "I'm not even sure if I was supposed to even let it out that I'm a pilot, let alone the identity of another pilot."

Toji looked over to his friends as Kensuke pestered Shinji about the identity of the second robot's pilot. The bespectacled boy had been trying to worm the information from the boy the moment that he had shown back up to school.

"Ken, if he doesn't want to say anything, he doesn't want to say anything. Besides, you don't need him to confirm anything, because **I** figured it out after seeing the damn thing. There's only one explanation that makes any sense, and you know it. If you're not going to blow her cover, you don't need the Shin-man here to verify anything."

Shinji shot the jock a grateful look, but Toji wasn't done yet. "What you should be pestering him is how he managed to get past Ayanami's cold, icy exterior and get her to go out on a date with him."

Shinji, flustered, sputtered out a garbled response as the trio arrived at the arcade. "It's not like that!" He managed to get out as they filed into the dark and deafeningly loud parlor.

Kensuke grinned again. "Just like it wasn't like that when you were ogling her during gym class? It's not like that when you go ballistic on people over little misunderstandings?"

Shinji continued to blush. "I thought we weren't going to mention that anymore."

Toji shrugged as he dropped coins into the two man flight sim. "So, are you two an item now? Because, well, you know she's never even shown a real interest in anyone before. If people get wind that she might be on the market, you'll have to beat some of them off with a stick. Yeah, she's weird, but she's also hot. Back before you got here, like, a year or so ago, dudes would ask her out and stuff. She never shot them down, you see, she never said anything. Just stared at them until they left. Weird as all get out. But once word gets out that she went out with you, well, you'll have dudes asking you how you managed it, and then you'll have dudes asking her out again."

While Shinji was mulling that over, Kensuke slipped into the other 'cockpit' of the simulator. "I don't see what you have to worry about. Just have your security detail scare them off."

"I couldn't do that!"

Toji laughed. "Like how you never want to ask them for a ride? It can't be an inconvenience to them, I mean, they already have to follow you around. They might as well give you a lift from place to place."

"Whatever. So when are you going to spill the secret of what you two did on your date? That's far from being classified information."

Shinji was wishing that he had never let it slip to them that he had had dinner with the 'Ice Queen' as she was sometimes called. It might not be so bad if they had gone to dinner right after the battle, when both were still on the massive adrenaline rush that accompanied combat, but they had put it off until after the next day.

It was enough time for Shinji to work himself into a nervous wreck, obsessing over every little thing, trying to figure out just what it was that he was expected to do. Misato had been absolutely no help at all, merely laughing and handing him a box of condoms. He fervently hoped that that was just the alcohol at work.

Rei, on the other hand, had spent the time trying to figure out how to pry information from him without skewing the data and future experiments. She also came up with no less than seventy five different scenarios in which attempt physical contact without overtly drawing attention to it. She was looking forwards to the meal, both as it would provide her an opportunity to closely observe him, free from other variables, and because her unconsciousness was screaming at her to claim the Angel destroying stud-muffin for her own, before some harlot from school tried to do so.

As could be expected, the dinner was a disaster. The only people who had fun that night were the off duty Section-2 personnel of both Groups 4 and 10, who were sitting in a bar near the restaurant, doing shots whenever the situation was awkward, whenever Shinji blushed or stammered, and whenever Rei said or did something that seemed like it was out of a bad romance comedy.

By the time the main meal had arrived, they were all roaring drunk, and starting to scare the bartender, as the men and women had scared the rest of his patrons out of the establishment with brandished firearms. He also wasn't very reassured that the fact the live feed being displayed on the televisions showed the interior of the posh restaurant down the street.

They spent most of the meal in silence, punctuated with the odd question and strange movement from both diners. At the end of the night both participants were entirely miserable, but for different reasons. Shinji was fairly certain that while she did not hate him, she wasn't particularly interested in him, at all.

Shinji sighed, "It's not that she doesn't have a personality. I mean, it's not really air to call her the Ice Queen. She's got a sense of humor."

Toji stopped piloting his aircraft to stick his head out the side of the game to stare in open disbelief at his friend. "She has a sense of humor? Ayanami?" The game promptly informed Toji that the other player had shot him down but was ignored by the incredulous jock. "I can buy that you're a pilot. I can even buy that she is. I can even buy that your job is all sorts of messed up. What I can't buy is that she has a sense of humor."

"No, I mean, well, it's a strange sense of humor, but... I could tell that it was there. She's just.. really good at hiding it."

Toji shook his head. "Uh-huh. And how can you tell that this thing even exists?" He ignored another shot down message and Kensuke's exultant cry of victory.

"Well, it's just in the way she smiles at somethings..."

"Wait, so now she's smiling at things?"

"She smiles!" Shinji protested, although he had a sinking feeling that this was a battle that he was going to lose.

"Yeah huh. So what's the problem then, exactly? If she is all smiling and making jokes for you, something we've certainly never seen, she must like you."

"Well, I'm not sure if that's the case. We didn't really talk during dinner. It was supposed to be a victory dinner, you know, with everyone being alive. But... I dunno... I guess that I just don't really know all that much about her still."

Shaking his head while pulling himself back inside the simulator, only to groan when he saw the score that Kensuke had racked up while he was distracted. "Well, you like her right? Then what you need to do is find out more about her. Talk to the people she knows."

_That would be a very short list. I think of all the people at NERV she even interacts with on a regular basis is Father and Dr. Akagi. I don't think that there's even anyone at school. Maybe Hokari? The class rep should know something about her, at least._

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei had ended the night staring at her ceiling trying to figure out where she had gone wrong with the boy, as none of her brilliant plans to initiate physical contact had succeeded satisfactorily. None of her verbal probes had really revealed anything of note that she didn't already know, either. So, apart from the mild enjoyment of his company during the meal, the night had not ended in a manner that she felt conducive towards enabling further research with him. It left a bitter taste in her mouth.

As she closed the door to the Captain's door behind her, she was deep in thought and so did not notice the Sub-Commander as he passed by. Of course, even if she had noticed, it was unlikely that she would have done anything to acknowledge him.

_While I am certainly relieved that the Captain does not have similar interest in Ikari as I do, I must say that for someone who is filling a role as an older sister, she was depressingly unable to provide any real insight into her ward. Still, this visit was beneficial in clearing up several questions. It is also gratifying to know that she was not hiding an interest in Science from me. That would have changed the results of several past experiments and invalidated much research.  
_

_Hypothesis: Ikari somewhat resents my closer relationship with the Commander. While all evidence supports this, I do not foresee it being a major obstacle, if I implement some of the Captain's suggestions. _

_Hypothesis: I may have to sacrifice personnel objectivity entirely in my research with him if I am to further enjoy physical contact. The pros and cons of sacrificing him as a test subject for a wider assortment of tests will have to be evaluated._

_Hypothesis: Direct information gathering from those who know him, as opposed to external observation may yield more data. Subjects for interview could include the Commander, the Class Representative, Students Suzahara and Aida. _

She stopped walking, and tilted her head to one side, reviewing her last hypothesis.

_The Commander may not be amiable to being interviewed about his son, especially in the light of the experiments I wish to preform. While he did encourage me to decrease the distance between us, I do not believe that he would allow the course I wish to engage. Even if we are not related biologically, the Commander is, for all intents and purposes, our father. Incest is traditionally had a stigma associated with it. _

_Interviewing the Class Representative should be the easiest. I already have a solid basis on how to engage in a 'gossip session', and simply will have to wait until an opportunity presents itself at school. _

_While interviewing the other students will be more problematic, I do not foresee any issues that cannot be resolved. Is it not said; 'Speak softly, and carry a flamethrower, and all the world will rush to hear what you have to say?'_

While waiting for the elevator, she was pulled from her thoughts as her cell phone rang. As there was no alarm klaxon ringing, she knew that it could only be one person calling her; the Commander.

"Yes?"

"Rei, come to my office."

"Yes."

The phone disconnected the call, and she tucked it back into her pocket. Once the elevator arrived, she took it to the floor on which the Commander's office was. She knocked thrice at the door, having been informed long ago that even though she had been summoned, she must still announce her presence by knocking on the door and wait for permission to enter. Sure enough, the door's lock buzzed and she entered, the automatic door shutting behind her.

The Commander watched her from behind his desk, his gaze piercing and calculating. Eventually, he spoke, the with the barest hints of interest present in his voice.

"How are things, Rei?"

"They are acceptable. The repair schedule for Unit-00 is being adhered to, with no deviations. I am physically recovered from the battle, and no lasting damage was taken."

"I see that you paid Captain Katsuragi a visit today."

"Yes."

"How is school?"

"It is fine. It was not damaged during the last battle, and classes have resumed according to the regular schedule."

"I read that you and Pilot Ikari had dinner together, at Rosewater's earlier this week."

"Yes." She paused, and then continued. "It was a celebratory dinner. To celebrate our victory over the Angel."

"Indeed." He pulled a paper out from one of the stacks on his desk, scanning it. " The Rosewater restaurant is considered to be a fancy restaurant, is it not?"

Unsure as to where he was going with this, Rei decided that, yes, a four star restaurant probably was considered fancy. "Yes."

"But both of you wore your school uniforms there. Surely this was outside the restaurant's dress code?"

_That would explain some of the looks the other patrons wore. We were violating the accepted local social norms. _"Yes."

He shuffled the paper back into the stack and withdrew another. "Perhaps you should obtain clothing suitable for such a restaurant? If you decide to hold more celebratory dinners in the future."

_Is he telling me to have dinner with his son again? Or is he telling me to obtain a wider assortment of clothing, more in line with the normally used garments for different situations and places?_

"Yes."

"You are free to go then Rei. Thank you for clarifying things for me." Gendo turned his attention to another sheet of paperwork, and Rei left his office, new thoughts swimming through her mind.

_Clarifying things? I do not believe that anything was made clear in that conversation._ _Perhaps I should seek assistance with obtaining a wider assortment of garments. Perhaps Ikari would be of assistance in the selection of additional garments. We would be able to procure the required items at the same time, thus saving time and enabling further research sooner._

Satisfied with her projected course of action, she left the Geo-Front for the surface, eagerly looking forwards to the next day, for she had several new experiments to conduct.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

While he wasn't particularly engrossed in the racing simulator, none the less it took Kensuke tapping him on his shoulder to get his attention. "Hey man, your phone's been ringing for couple minutes now."

Scrambling for his phone, he flipped it open to see "No Number" displayed. _So it's not an Angel Alert. Who could be calling me?_

Thumbing the call button, he put it to his head tentatively. "H-hello?"

To his massive shock, his father's voice, cold and unfeeling responded. "Pilot Ikari, report to my office immediately."

The phone beeped, signaling that the call had terminated. Shinji closed the phone, shaking softly. _What could he want? Did I do something wrong?_ Try as he might, he couldn't think of any reason why his father would want to see him.

Kensuke, watching his friend with growing unease, leaned against the sim. "Hey man, what's wrong?"

"Uh... nothing. I just have to go to NERV is all."

"Now? But I thought you said..." The bespectacled teen looked around, and leaned in, his voice lower. "It's not an attack is it?"

"No, well, I don't think so. I've never been told about an attack like this before. I think that I might be in trouble again."

"For what? You haven't done anything. You don't even confirm things that I all but know are true!"

Shinji shrugged, already walking for the exit. "I'll see you guys at school tomorrow, OK?"

"Yeah, OK. See ya man."

Outside, Shinji started walking towards the train station, when he had an idea. He changed course, and veered off towards the black sedans parked unobtrusively down the road. As he approached, the driver's side window rolled down.

Swallowing, and trying to not lose his nerve, he walked up to it. "I am supposed to report to the Commander's office as soon as possible. Is there a faster way to get to Central than the trains?"

The two men sitting in the front exchanged looks. Shinji heard the locks on the doors disengage, and the rear passenger door opened. "Get inside."

Climbing inside, he saw a third man sitting in the back seat, holding a MP5. He nodded at him as he buckled in. "T-thank you"

"Not a problem, Mr. Ikari."

They sped through the roads and alleyways of Tokyo-3, getting to a nondescript building that was like so many others in the fortress city, low, squat and heavily fortified and reinforced. Inside the warehouse, an express vehicle lift kicked into action, sending them down into the bowels of the earth. If one likened Tokyo-3 to a castle, which many did, then the Geo-Front was it's keep, the fortress within a fortress, the last line of defense.

The analogy was rather lost on Shinji, who wasn't much of a student of European architecture or history.

Likewise, not being much a student of western religions, the placement of his father's desk at the head of the Tree of Sephiroth was also lost on him. What wasn't was that the glowing emblem made his father's office really creepy.

He stood there, alone with his father, the Sub-Commander not present for some reason, absent from his normal place slightly behind and to the left of his father's chair.

He wilted under the impassive gaze of his father, who sat there, silently watching him. Then he shifted, and pulled a paper from one of the stacks atop his desk.

"I received a report that you and the First Child had dinner together."

Swallowing hard, he somehow managed to keep his voice from trembling. "Yes, Father."

"The report also mentioned that it was at the Rosewater restaurant. How did you manage to obtain a reservation there? They have an age restriction, and a dress code."

This time, there was no hiding his nervousness, shifting his eyes from his father to the glowing symbol on the floor. "W-when I asked one of my S-section 2 escorts about a place to c-celebrate at... h-he suggested it, a-and said that he would take care o-of the reservation."

His father said nothing to that, and when Shinji looked up again, he saw him putting the paper into another pile and withdrawing a second sheet.

"Third Child, you will find that there are... some unofficial... 'perks' to being a Pilot. This city is indeed a Company City. NERV is the law here, and I am NERV. Do not abuse these 'perks' further."

Watching his son visibly cringe, he continued. "If you dine at Rosewater again, I suggest that you obtain clothing that meets the dress code."

Shinji's brain crashed. _What? Is... is that what he called me in here to say?_

"I will not have the Pilots giving NERV a bad name or public image. Is that understood?"

"Y-yes, Father."

"Good."

There was silence for a few moments, as Shinji watched his father make a few notations on the sheet, before trading it for another one. Thinking they were done, he turned to go, but was stopped by his father's voice.

"How is school?"

_School? _"It's fine."

"I see that you have not joined any of the after school clubs. Extracurricular activities are important. Your duties at NERV come first, but the time restraints placed on you do not preclude you from attending some of the clubs."

"Err.. yes, Father."

Gendo shifted to another document. "I would suggest the book club, and possibly the strings group."

"Yes, father."

"That is all. You may go now."

Shinji refrained from bolting for the door, and made it to the elevator before collapsing in shock and disbelief. _What just happened in there? Is he actually interested in how I'm doing in school? _He wasn't sure how to feel about that. It raised several questions that he wasn't sure he liked, or how to answer them. _If he's interested now, did he keep track of my education during the time we never spoke? Has he been keeping tabs on me my entire life? Why do that, unless he cares, but if he cares, why send me away? Why treat me the way he does? And if he doesn't care about me, why bother asking me about school and clubs?_

It would not be until much later that his frazzled brain would figure out that his father's ambiguous statement about not abusing the unofficial perks of his position could be taken to be a sort of blank check.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato stared at her closed door for several minutes after half of her pilot corps left. Major portions of her brain had shut down from horror and shock. Looking at her clock, she saw that it was only noon. Deciding that she didn't care, she shut down her computer and left. She needed the sweet release of the alcohol induced haze. She wanted, no, she **needed** to forget what she just learned. It wasn't right, no it wasn't right at all that the universe was such a uncaring **sonofabich** that it would just dump her into Ayanami's inner thoughts like that.

She staggered through the corridors, headed for the surface and freedom. There was light at the end of the tunnel, but the tunnel was very long. Even the adrenaline rush she normally got from driving insanely did little for her, the thrill of the speed and danger seeming shallow and unfulfilling.

Once inside her home, she noted that Shinji was still out. _Good. I don't think I could face him right now. That poor, poor, doomed boy. _She did see Pen-Pen, and drew the protesting penguin into a tight embrace, rocking back and forth on the floor for a few minutes, relishing the downy softness of his feathers.

Releasing him finally, she threw open the refrigerator, and took stock of her beer supplies. _Maybe, just maybe, I have enough. _Cracking open the first of many cans, she got to work.


	13. Chapter 13

It was raining outside, the pounding sheets of water instantly soaking anything or anyone foolish enough to venture outside. Thus, there was a larger than normal amount of students who elected to take their lunch in the classroom, either unwilling or to lazy to go to the cafeteria downstairs.

Shinji yawned, looking around the class. He had been up later than normal last night, cleaning up the horrific mess that Miss Misato had generated. He wasn't entirely sure what had brought it on, for he had not seen it anywhere near as bad as it was when he got home yesterday from NERV since he had first moved in. Empty beer cans littered the place, as well as delivery food boxes. Thankfully she had kept her clothing on. That was something, at least.

He stared at the lunch he had brought for himself. It had been a hurried affair, being in actuality some leftovers from her delivery food that he had scraped into his box. Still as edible and palatable as it had been last night. He just didn't feel like eating right now.

He stood, dropping his box on Toji's desk and headed for the classroom door. Toji, already eating, not even seconds after the bell had rung, swallowed his mouthful of sandwich and called after him. "Hey, Shin-man, where ya headed? You ain't hungry?"

"No, I'm not. I need to check something in the library. I'll be right back." He closed the door after him, moving down the hall in the sea of students.

Toji looked at Hikari, who was eating with them today. "What's he gonna do in the library?"

The pigtailed girl shook her head. "I don't know." She paused, looking thoughtful. "We don't have any research projects right now. Maybe he wants to check out a book for pleasure reading?"

Toji shrugged. "I dunno, I don't think I've ever really seen him read a book for fun."

"Well, it could be for later, you know, at home."

"I don't think I've ever heard him mention that he likes to read either."

Growing exasperated, she pointed a finger at him accusingly. "You don't know all that much about him anyways. What are his hobbies? Tell me one."

"I don't think that he has any. I mean, yeah he hangs out sometimes with us at the arcade, but other than that, I don't know what he does. Besides work, you know."

"That can't possibly take up all of his time. He has to do something to unwind."

Toji grinned. "Yeah? So what do you do?"

She turned red. "That's none of your business! What I do in my spare time is my business!"

"And so what he does isn't? But I still don't see him as the book reading type."

Kensuke finished chugging one of the energy drinks that made up his normal lunch. "He said he was going to check something, not check something out. He's just looking for information."

She turned to give him a frank stare. "OK, then, Mr Semantics, what's he going to check? What information is in the library that's not available on the school network?" She took a small bite of her own lunch, which she had made last night.

None of the trio noticed Rei walking up to them. She had, of course, noted Shinji's departure. His comment had also not gone unnoticed, but she was also at a loss as to what information he sought, even if she did agree with Student Aida as to the meaning of his statement. However, Ikari was not the subject she was interested in at the moment. At least, not directly. She stood behind Toji, holding one arm with the other, suddenly uncertain as to the best way to phrase her request. Kensuke froze with his second drink halfway to his mouth, and Hikari stopped in mid-chew, both staring at the suddenly self-conscious girl.

"Class Representative Hokari, I... I would like to engage in..." Rei searched for the best way to say it, not entirely sure that using the term 'gossip session' was best. She had, in the past, observed a social stigma attached to those who stated things bluntly, even if it was the most direct method of exchanging ideas and information. Finally selecting something she felt was suitable, she continued. "I wish to engage you in conversation on the various merits and demerits of Student Ikari as opposed to other males in our age group." Seeing that no response was forthcoming from the stunned girl, she added "I am able to provide refreshments, if this is an issue. I have brought a selection of canned beverages and muffins."

If a pin were to drop in the classroom, the sound would have seemed ear-splittingly loud. Everyone who remained in the classroom sat in hushed anticipation, watching and waiting for their Class Rep's response.

In a sudden burst of movement, Hikari stood, scooping her food up in one hand and grabbed one of Rei's wrists with the other and fled the room, the eminently confused blue haired girl in tow.

Toji swallowed his mouthful of food, and looked at his friend. "Ken, did Ayanami just say what I thought she just said?"

"Yes, Toji, I do believe that she did say what you think she just said. Did she really just ask Hikari for her opinion on the Shin-man?"

"Good. For a minute there I thought I was going insane." He resumed his meal, shoveling the rest of his sandwich into his mouth, and opened up the box Shinji had given him.

Kensuke looked at his friend. "So what are we going to tell him?"

"Tell who what?" Toji asked around a mouthful of food.

Kensuke rolled his eyes. "Ikari. What are we going to tell 'Student Ikari'? He made quotation marks with his fingers in the air.

"We're not saying a damn thing about it. I don't want any of that crazy on me. "

"And what was all that about 'refreshments'?" He again made quotation marks in the air.

"Ken, what did I just say about not wanting any crazy on me?

"C'mon, man, this is a earth-shattering event here. You mean that we're just going to let it pass on by? You're not even interested in finding out what she thinks about him? I mean, this is the first time she's shown an interest in anything. Normally she just stares out the window."

"She always stares out the window. She's weird."

"It's Ayanami. If you looked in a dictionary for the definition of the word weird you'd find her picture. But that's the point. If she's suddenly interested in him, after all this time, what does that mean?"

"Thaaat..." Toji shook his head again. "No, I'm not even going to talk about this. Every time you rope me into something, it goes south for me. I'm just going to sit here, and eat" he shoveled cold noodles into his mouth to punctuate his point, "and forget that anything ever happened.. If you're so interested, go find them and listen in."

"Nah, I didn't bring any eavesdropping gear with me today." He took a swig from his drink, and then rolled his eyes at his friend's incredulous stare. "What, I'm not allowed to have spy devices now?"

"When did **you** get spy stuff?"

"Oh, I'm making them. It's actually pretty easy when you get down to it."

"You want to be James Bond now? What happened to bugging Shinji for a recommendation to be a pilot?"

"Well, I was looking at the stuff I got on the things, and I was thinking about that one day. Some things just don't add up. A normal cockpit does not look like a featureless gray tube one minute, and then look like what it should the next. That means that they are using some sort of brain interface. Those things we saw on his head probably help with it." He tapped his own head in the approximate areas the A10 connectors went before continuing on. "Do you remember the control yoke system they had in there? I don't think that he actually uses it for anything. If I'm right, the only reason that it's there is because part of his brain expects that there is a hardware control setup. If he's getting all the audio and video feeds piped into his brain, that means they have some sort of input/output connection. They input sensory data, and he sends output to the machine itself." He paused to drink from his sugary drink, still building steam in his detailed explanation. "Now, I'm sure that I don't need to tell you that messing around with your brain isn't that good of an idea. There might be reasons why those two are so withdrawn. If it wasn't for the **spectacular** way in which we met him, I don't think that he would have any friends at all. There's just something... off about them. They're shut in on themselves. I mean, we still have to kinda twist Ikari's arm to get him to the arcade."

Finishing off that can, he popped the tab on his third. "The next item is even worse than hooking things up into your brain. He **felt** it. He **felt what happened to the thing**. It got stabbed, and he feels it in his gut. You know it, and I know it. I felt like I got kicked in the stomach." He lowered his voice, and drew in close to Toji. "I didn't say anything to anyone else, but after they let us go, when I got home, I had two small red marks, like burns, on my stomach. I'm willing to bet that if you had looked at Ikari, he'd have the same. And I bet that if you had looked at the Eva right after the fight, if you matched up the spots, it would be **right where it got stabbed**." He pulled back now, his point made. "If you're driving a car, and you hit another car, you might bounce around a little, and get hurt that way. But you don't break your nose because someone smashes your fender in. You don't break an arm or a leg because a tire goes flat. You don't get cut when someone keys your car."

Toji silently nodded, food forgotten. _He's right. He's completely right. That makes absolutely no sense at all._ He felt a sudden stab of guilt for simply putting it all out of his mind, for dismissing the innate wrongness of how it all had been. He had just wanted to put it all behind him and get on with his life, and that was fine. What wasn't fine was that he had promised himself that he would make up for his previous idiocy by befriending the pilot, who had seemed so fragile in those few minutes they had shared in the dark cockpit of the robot after the fight. He had needed a friend, and he would be one. But he had been ignoring some vital facts about what his friend did, and what it might mean to him. Unfortunately, there was nothing that he was able to do about any of it. Except try even harder to be a good friend.

Kensuke continued on with his spiel. "So, while I'm still interested in the whole thing, it's more out of curiosity than an actual desire to pilot one of those things."

The boy's conversation was interrupted by another classmate walking up to them. It was Arata, another boy who had been on the school's track team while it had existed. He however, did not share Toji's proclivity towards wearing the tracksuit in lieu of the regular uniform.

"Hey Toji. So, did Ayanami actually ask the Class Rep about the Ikari kid's 'merits & demerits?"

"Looks like it, Arata."

Arata smiled, and stretched his arms, as if getting limber and loosened up before a track meet. "I guess that I'm going to have to discuss my merits and demerits with her, then."

Still eating, Toji shook his head. "Wouldn't do that if I were you. My boy's a pilot of that robot, remember?"

Confused, Arata pulled out a chair and sat down. "Yeah, so?"

"Mean's that he's got a lot more going for him than you." Toji shrugged. "Besides, it's raining out."

Now extremely confused, Arata's tone showed his irritation. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"It means that I'd hate to have to throw you out the window. Getting rained on, on top of a broken ankle or leg? Insult to injury." Toji swallowed his food. "It's be nicer than what Ikari would do to ya. He's sweet on Ayanami."

"I think that I can take care of myself Toji. He's a bit of a runt."

"A runt that drives a monster killing robot. I'm pretty sure they give him fighting classes outside the robot. Right Ken?"

Kensuke nodded. "It's a pretty standard thing for military personnel. Especially pilots."

"But let's say that he doesn't stomp you into the dirt. I'm pretty sure that someone as important has him would have some sort of security detail following him around."

Kensuke crushed a can between his hands for emphasis. "Tasers, pepper spray, armor penetrating bullets, knives... I'm sure they are pretty bored and are just waiting for an excuse to unload on someone. He can't be all that exciting of a person to guard."

Arata, looking slightly green, swallowed. "You know, forget I ever said anything. Really. Don't mention it." He moved back towards his seat, but then looked out the window into the driving rain, as if to see if there were blood thirsty bodyguards prowling around.

The thing of it was that **there were **trench-coated men, still wearing sunglasses, assembled down in the courtyard, as if the mere mention of them had caused them to appear. One of them pointed towards the window of the classroom. Four heads turned and looked up as one.

Arata nearly shit his pants.

Down in the courtyard four men laughed so hard that tears formed, but all evidence of them was lost in the rain. One man frowned, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets. "Can we get out of the rain now that we're done being scary secret agents? It's not even like we're the plainclothes guys in 6 Group."

The leader, the one who had pointed up at the window, grinned. "Alright, let's get out of the rain for Wet McSadpants here."

Wet McSadpants rolled his eyes. "Hahaha, very funny."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Ritsuko poked her head into Misato's office. "Misato? Are you in here?" The blond doctor heard a muffled groan coming from underneath the paper-strewn desk. Walking around desk, she saw the purple haired captain curled up in a ball. "What on earth are you doing?"

The only part of Misato's garbled response that Ritsuko was even partially certain of was 'resting'.

Sighing, the doctor sat down in Misato's chair, rolling back up against the wall and leaned down to look at her friend. "You really need to cut back on your drinking if it's affecting your job. It wasn't a problem before, but if you come in like this again I'm going to have to do something about it." She poked the cringing woman's shoulder, who burped. Ritsuko drew back her nose crinkling in disgust. "God, you reek of booze. How much did you have last night?"

Misato whispered through clenched teeth. "All of it."

"All of it? What do you mean all of it?"

"There wasn't any left in the apartment when I looked for breakfast. I must have had it all."

Ritsuko, well aware of Misato's choice of breakfast materials, and similarly aware of the amounts of beer she kept in her home, was aghast. "Why? What possessed you to even do that?" She swallowed hard. "We need to get you down to my lab. I wanna check you out. Even with your system, that should be more than enough to kill you." She grabbed Misato by the arm and half drug, half supported her on the way down to her lab and primary office, deeper in the NERV Pyramid.

"Oof. So, why did you try to drink yourself into a coma? I wouldn't think that Shinji would be that bad of a roomie."

Misato yawned and shook her head, and then whimpered as that set the world to spinning. "S'not him. S'least, I don't think so. Can't remember..." She yawned again, and then giggled, and then groaned. "You know Rei's... Rei's..." She burped, and grimaced at the taste. "Rei's sweet on him. We chatted about him yest.. yesterday. Sweet girl." She giggled again. "He's sweet on her toooo..."

"Yes, yes, the two pilots are all making eyes at each other. That's not important right now." _At least he'll be happy to know that this little disaster is well on it's way to happening. God, Misato, you weigh a ton. _"What's important is that you stop drinking so much. This can't be good."

They eventually made it into her lab. Misato collapsed on the examination table, pressing her head to to cool metal. Turning her head sideways to watch the doctor as she hurried about grabbing things, she sighed.

"We'll have to give them the talk you know." She giggled again. "I get to do Shinji."

Ritsuko, only half listening to the semi drunken ramblings, continued on with her preparations for a minute before the words registered in her brain. "Wait, what?"

"The talk. You know, about the birds and the weasels. I get to tell Shinji." She frowned. "I should have talked to him already. When they went on their date I gave him a box of condoms."

Ritsuko dropped the test tube she was holding in horror, ignoring it as it hit the ground. "They went on a date? When the **hell **was this?" She blinked. "Condoms? What the fuck?"

Misato started to cry, and tried to sit up. "Am I a bad person Rits? I mean, I'm trying to be there for him, but he never says anything. He doesn't even respond when I tease him. Maybe it's best that I can't have kids. I'd be a bad mom..." She trailed off in sobs.

Ritsuko sighed, and hugged the shuddering woman. "Don't say that. He's just... like his dad. They're very introverted. They're closed in. Besides, you're too young to be his mom. You're more like an older sister." She paused, trying to think. "Besides, what about Pen-Pen? You've done all right by him."

"He's a penguin... he don't count..."

"Well, it's good that you took him in. Otherwise, we'd not even know that the two might even be going at it. Plus, I think it's actually helped him, being there. He's shown a steadier improvement rate than Rei after all."

"Really?"

"Yes." Ritsuko released her hold on Misato to rummage around in a cabinet. She pulled a few bottles out and dumped a few measures of their contents into a short beaker. She mixed the concoction with her pen before handing it to Misato. "Here, drink this. It'll make you feel better."

Misato took the drink without comment, sniffling a little, and downed it in one go. She grimaced. "What was that? It tasted horrible."

"Just something to help purge your system." Ritsuko handed her trash bin out to Misato, who looked confused for a moment. She then gagged, her eyes going wide, and then snatched it from her, promptly vomiting into it.

"You'll thank me later. Listen, I really mean it about you cutting back, I can't keep you from drinking unless I go to some extremes I'd rather not go to, but I want you to slow it down. We need the Operations Director." She filled a new beaker with water and sat it next to the vomiting woman.

Sitting down in her chair, she called up her calendar of tests and experiments. "I think the best thing is for us to talk to the two together. Make sure that they know that however they feel, their duties to NERV and the rest of the world come first. Condoms or not, "she remarked with a roll of her eyes, "I don't want them having intercourse. We need to have them stable for the highest synch ratios. If they get all heartbroken like regular teens do over the dumbest things, we don't know what it will mean when it counts."

If Misato had been physically capable of nodding at that point, she would have done so. Ritsuko's argument made sense. She certainly could recall as a young adult, years older than the two, doing stupid shit over infatuation and perceived love. She had seen it on the battlefield too, even older still.

"Of course, we should keep this quite. I don't know how the Commander will react, and I don't really want to know." _He'd probably dance a jig. But if I can keep them apart long enough, he might decide to give up on the whole idea._

Misato did nod now, spitting to clear out her mouth. She downed the entire beaker of water. "Ugh... Yeah, I don't really think I'd want to be the one to tell him. So when do we talk to them?"

"Depends." Ritsuko jammed a needle into Misato's arm, and drew a measure of blood into a new test tube. "How close do you think they are to actually hooking up?"

"Oh, I don't think we're in any danger right now. I don't think neither of them has the faintest idea of how to go about becoming friends, let alone bumping uglies."

"Then we'll talk to them after their next harmonics test in two days. The Commander is scheduled to be in a meeting with the Committee during the test, so we'll be free of him. When I brief him on the test later, I just won't mention our little pep talk with the pilots." Ritsuko smiled, pleased with her cleverness. Everything would fall into place, and she could sleep easier knowing that the pilots were not engaging in potentially crippling extracurricular fun."

Misato leaned back, resting on her elbows. "They'll need to do something as a release of pent up energy and frustration though."

"Shinji's still going to the range, right? He can keep doing that."

"What about Rei?"

"When have you ever seen her with an over abundance of energy?"

"That's not fair. She kinda reminds me of myself. Back then, I mean. Before collage."

"Back...? Oh, I see." Dropping the test tube into a complicated looking machine, she shrugged. "She's completely dedicated to the project, and other than the book club at the school, I don't think that she does anything."

"Book club?"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

It had still been raining when Rei had left school for her home, but had stopped once she was almost home. She had walked the entire way, not bothering her escorts for a ride. She only did that when she had to carry items from one place to another. A little rain was of no consequence to her.

Stepping into her dingy apartment, she hung her raincoat up to dry, but dumped her damp socks and skirt on top of the rest of her dirty laundry in one corner of the room. Still only partially dressed, she started boiling some water for tea.

Leaning up against the wall and engaging in the 8764521st iteration of her experiment of whether or not a pot that is observed boils (She had long ago decided that the evidence firmly supported that bringing water to boil was not affected by outside observation, but she retained some amusement in ensuring that her previous test results were still reproducible), her thoughts soon turned back to the advice and admonitions that Hikari had given her, most about openly stating such things in public.

While she was unable to give her much information on the boy, Rei had discovered that while he had been the subject of much discussion, there was no serious threat of anyone trying to 'snap him up' as Hikari put it. While it was undeniable that he was the pilot of the giant robot, the general consensus was that he wasn't that impressive to look at. It was true, he seemed to fade into the background a lot, but Rei chalked the obviously incorrect perception that he was not much to look at up to no one outside of NERV having seen him in the plugsuit, (apart from two presumably heterosexual males) and they had not seen him in action (again, apart from those two).

_It is gratifying to know that I may proceed, for now at least, at my own pace without fear of extra variables interfering with the experiments. I do wonder, however, why the Class Representative gave me that strange look when discussing his status as a NERV pilot. Does she think that this is the only reason I am interested in him? Does she think that I aim to acquire him as a sort of trophy, with which to artificially inflate my potential social standing inside the school's hierarchy? A previously unforeseen aftereffect. Interesting. What other social aftereffects would a 'relationship' with Ikari provide a female student?_

Her thoughts interrupted by the successful boiling of water in an observed vessel, she poured water into her mug, a heavy duty piece of plain black ceramic. It had not been washed for over a year, as Rei did not see the need to clean the mug as the only thing that went into it was boiling water and various teas. The spoon that was dedicated to stirring the tea likewise had not been washed, and the change in color from a silver to tea stained metal was abrupt.

Moving into her lab, she sat down on a stool and pulled out one of her bacteria and LCL farms. She had added a stronger version of penicillin to the staph farm, and while it seemed to be handling the improved staph culture well, she found that she could not gather enough interest come up with the next course of action for the sample. Her thoughts kept running to Ikari.

She frowned.

_Perhaps I have been focusing too much on the social experiments. There is a wealth of other hypotheses that could be tested out without interfering with the current experiment. Perhaps I could follow up on the suspected external synchronization, or attempt to duplicate an infinite synchronization score. _

_His score, while slightly higher than mine, has come nowhere near approaching an infinite level again during harmonics tests. I will need to obtain the battle logs for the last two fights. That will be easy enough. Perhaps it is the stress and danger of an actual battle that prompts him to fully synchronize with the Evangelion. It could be an unconscious reaction. Other variables could be at work here, as well. For instance, the majority of the harmonics tests occur with the test bodies and not the Evangelions. What else could be different?  
_

She sipped her tea, looking around the messy and cluttered laboratory, her eyes coming to a rest on the two labcoats hanging on pegs on the wall. She smiled momentarily before shaking her head.

_Obviously, something more than the normal harmonics test would be required if I am to test this. I will also need to either construct my own test plug or obtain access to one in the Prinbow Box. That will be an issue. If I make one, I will need to get him to get inside of it. That, while not outside the realm of probability, would certainly ruin other potential experiments. How then, could access to the Prinbow Box be attained? I obviously would not be able to run the test. I would have to make the test seem like it come down from my nemesis. The personnel working under her would undoubtably run through the test for me if it seemed that the order came from her. How then do I do this?_

Still drinking her tea, she moved back over to her apartment, done for now in the lab, as she was engrossed in the planning stages of her next experiment.

_Tests are issued, scheduled and logged electronically. Thus, I need access to her computer terminal. The logstamp will provide enough authority for the test to be carried out. _

_Access can be gained two ways; physical and electronic._

_Physical access would be require being able to obtain entry into her lab unnoticed and unobserved by the MAGI security systems. While the individual offices on that level are not monitored, due to the need for secrecy, the hallways are. Therefore, I am presented with two options; circumvent the security system, or obtain access without use of the hallways. _

_An interesting question on it's own, that. How would one gain access to a room with only one entrance, without using the door?_

She leaned against a wall, scratching a itch, a phantom remnant of old stitches long removed, through the fabric of her shirt when the heater came on, blowing warm air on her and sending ripples across the top of her tea. She watched the movement of the liquid for a moment, before snapping her head up to stare at the air vent.

_If the air vents inside of NERV are large enough, access could be obtained through them! One could go anywhere unobserved inside of NERV, if one used the air vents!_

_So, physical access is available. What of electronic access? Remote electronic access to the computer terminal would require convincing the MAGI to let me into the network, and then to her computer terminal. The MAGI have allowed me remote access to the network in the past, and have assisted in previous experiments. Perhaps I could enlist their help in this one? Having direct access to the gathered data would be a boon._

Despite the attraction of exploring how far into NERV she could get via the air ducts, her desire for direct access to the test data won the fight. Plugging her cell phone into her laptop, she dialed the number for MAGI access. She called up a custom built chat client that allowed her to interact with the three distinct computer personalities that made up the MAGI triumvirate.

**... Greetings, Ayanami, R. It has been 112 Days since your last remote access to this system. **

**Greetings, MAGI. Request Remote Access to MAGI and LogStamp for Subject:Akagi, R.**

**...For what purpose?**

**Purpose is to have Tech Division personnel run an adjusted harmonics test on Subject:Ikari, S. Test Purpose is to determine if Subject:Ikari, S can unconsciously obtain higher synchronization with test system. Data will be used to extrapolate if Subject:Ikari, S can unconsciously obtain higher synchronization with Evangelion Unit-01.**

**...Please wait.**

**...**

**...**

**...**

**...Remote Access and LogStamp granted. Please upload file with test parameters. Will there be anything else?**

**Download file of NERV Central Ventilation System Schematics. **

**...Internal Blueprints are considered Classified. Reason?**

Rei stared at the computer screen. It made sense that the blueprints would be classified, and thus the MAGI would be loathe to hand them out, even if they decided to help her in getting her test done. Telling them that she planned to try to evade the security system using the ducts would only have them flag the ducts as a potential security concern, and thus ruin them for future use. So, what could she tell them that would not cause them to decide to not help her with both her experiment and the air ducts? The MAGI had moods, not unlike the person off whom their composite personalities were based. There was no telling what they might do if she failed to appease them.

**...Reason?**

_They are getting impatient. I need to think of something._ A small smile spread across her face. _Of course! It's perfect!_

**Emergency access to Evangelion Cages in the event of hostile takeover of NERV, or if other routes to cages are blocked. **

**...Please wait.**

**...**

**...**

**...Granted. File being sent to you now. Ensure that this file is kept secure. Classified materials must be protected at all costs.**

**Understood. I will upload test parameters once I have them outlined.**

**...Understood. Will there be anything else?**

Rei frowned at the screen. It wasn't often that the MAGI deigned to help her, and if they were offering more assistance, then it would be a waste of resources to not use them.

**Can you determine if an Impact Event, Human Initiated and Controlled or otherwise, could result in one or more persons being sent either backwards or forwards in time, or across dimensions, given an infinite parallel worlds scenario?**

**...Interesting concept. We will devote some cycles to it. Good night, Ayanami, R**

The chat client went dark, no evidence of the previous conversation. There was, however, a new folder on her desktop marked as 'Ventilation'.

She gulped down the last of her tea, and went to make more, foregoing another attempt to reproduce the previous results and instead returned to her laptop on her bed. She yawned suddenly, but got down to deciding just how she would begin testing Ikari's ability to initiate and maintain an infinite synchronization score.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Gendo frowned at his computer terminal suddenly, scrolling back up several pages to re-read a passage in his agent's report. Opening up a new window, he pulled up the Evangelion Equipment Types schematics, and paged through it to the B-Type entry. As he continued reading, his frown deepened until he was actively glaring at his monitor.

So, SEELE was rattling the saber, it seemed. A foolish move, to tip their hand like this. He could not see what they could hope to gain by shipping Unit-02 with equipment not capable of under water operations. If the convoy fleet was attacked, by Angelic or terrestrial forces, the Evangelion would be extremely vulnerable. This move of theirs was foolhardy. They knew, as he did, that they needed to be able to repulse all the Angels while the stage was being set for Instrumentality. The loss of a combat ready Evangelion and Child would be catastrophic.

Although his agent did not come out and say as much, he was also perplexed by this move. It was a long trip from the North Sea to Japan, as the convoy would have to travel around Africa instead of taking the shortcut through Suez Canal, as that entire area was currently embroiled in open conflict. It had been deemed to much of a risk to send the ships through there.

His computer beeped at him, as the MAGI passed a test request along to him for final approval. It seemed that Dr. Akagi was working late again, which was of little surprise to him. He opened it up, scanning through it. He paused, impressed, if a bit underwhelmed. This was an interesting idea, these new tests of the synchronization link between the pilots and the Evangelions in different stages of consciousness. It had been demonstrated that a very weak synchronization could be attained and maintained with an unconscious pilot, but the score was so low that it did not allow for actual movement or utilization of the Evangelions. There were several new tests detailed out to be tested, on top of the tests that had been previously with Rei. While he couldn't see what she hoped to discover, it was an interesting notion, and he saw no reason to deny this test. He typed in his signature block on the paper, logging it with his logstamp. Turning his attention back to the report from Berlin, he was again interrupted as the MAGI delivered a records request from Rei.

Opening up the request form he read through it more carefully than the test request. Rei wanted access to the recordings from the last two Angel battles, again stating a desire to study and determine the best possible way to defeat them.

She also wanted permanent use of one of the conference rooms near the locker-rooms for use as a pilot waiting area/ready room in the event that not all pilots were being sortied.

It was, he reasoned, not an unreasonable request, doubly so, as it came from Rei, who never asked for anything.

He approved both requests, and returned to the task of undermining SEELE.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji stared at Lt. Ibuki's face over the video link. "You want to do what?"

Maya sighed. _I don't know why sempai would shedding this test for a day that's she's up working on the remains of the last Angel. _"We are going to be testing your synchronization with the test body while you are at various stages of consciousness. Today, we'll be taking a baseline reading under normal conditions, and then we will proceed from there. There are three major levels that we will be taking readings from, and as we get to them, I'll let you know, OK?"

Shinji sounded doubtful to the techs manning the Prinbow Box, but he agreed nonetheless.

_It's not like I've got much of a choice in this anyways. At least it got me out of class. I wonder what was up with everyone?_

Upon his return to the classroom from the school library, he had been greeted by odd looks by everyone in the class. Hikari had been missing from where they had pushed their desks together for lunch, and he noticed that Rei was also gone. Toji said that Hikari had gone to the bathroom. Neither boy said anything about Rei.

The odd looks continued throughout the rest of the day, causing him to try to sink down into his seat. Once school was over, he managed to flee to the safety of his room and SDAT. This morning, before his phone beeped at him to tell him to report to NERV, he had been met by the same odd looks and in his growing paranoia, he was sure that there were hushed whispers going on behind his back. So while a battery of harmonics tests and being stuck in the test plug all day wasn't his idea of a good time, at least he didn't have to worry about whatever was going on in class.

He settled down, leaning back against the seat, taking deep lungfuls of LCL and trying to clear his mind. As always, the test plug felt... different from when they did tests with Unit-01. There wasn't any way that he knew how to describe the sensation to the techs, had they even thought to ask. He had never mentioned it before, simply because he thought that the difference was normal.

There was a difference in the harmonics tests they preformed with the test bodies and the regular activation and synchronization tests done with the actual Evangelion Units, but the difference was not in how it act of synchronization felt. It was in that it was easier to synchronize with the test bodies than the actual Units. Thus, the test bodies were used specifically for testing out new equipment, from new plugs, plugsuits, or when doing tests or taking readings on the pilots during synchronization itself. If it worked there, they could then move on to testing the gear or procedures on the Evangelions. Above all, they wanted to avoid having a repeat of Rei's failed activation test, where the prototype had gone wild.

Maya sighed again as she watched the monitors that were providing information on Shinji's brainwaves. _Everything looks normal enough. _She looked down at the test procedure in her hands, and then turned to Makato.

"Alright, we'll stick like this for another two hours, and then we'll induce unconscious. We'll pipe a mild sedative into the LCL mixture and let him drift off to sleep. This test is calling for a more in-depth battery of tests on an unconscious pilot than previous tests, so we'll have him napping for a bit while they run."

He nodded, having read through the outline already. "I wonder what prompted this set of tests. I thought that we were done with the sleep tests."

"Maybe the higher ups want confirmation on the data we gathered from Rei? I know they did the same tests with the pilot of Unit-02 in Germany."

"But what about the new tests? If they are just looking for confirmation, why add more on top of it? If they are adding new tests, shouldn't we have Ayanami down here as well?"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kensuke idly watched Rei as the blue haired girl stared at the clock on the wall above the teacher's desk. She had been staring at it for the past three hours, ever since Shinji's phone had beeped at him and he had left before class had even begun for the day. He has looked at it, and then spoke shortly to Ayanami, and then left in a hurry, not even stopping to say goodbye on his way out. It obviously wasn't an Angel attack, as the alarms had yet to sound, and Ayanami hadn't left wither. All she had done was tell Hikari that Shinji had been called to NERV and would not be present today.

When Hikari had informed the teacher of the matter when he called role that morning, the room had erupted in a buzz of whispers until Hikari restored order.

And now Rei was staring at the clock instead of out the window that she sat next to. It was all very odd to the bespectacled teen. Was she expecting something to happen, or was she just waiting for time to pass so that she could go to NERV?

Author's Notes:

It's interesting to me how this fic has rapidly become rather Rei centric, with splashes of Gendo as opposed to being Gendo centric, which was my original intent. I think it's because he unfortunately doesn't actually do all that much, apart from making sure that things proceed according to his plans. Most of his day revolves around reading paperwork and telling his spies what to do and who to follow, etc. His only diversions from the monotony of that are spreading rumors about himself, and pulling the puppet strings on everyone around him, getting them to dance to his tune, even if he's not playing it. He's an indirect action guy. He practically lives in his office, for crying out loud. So I still have to write about other people in order to show the whys and hows of his master plan (Which will become clear before the end, including the part about Yui's core) , and then telling you that he watched it on the video screen, cackling madly and wringing his hands menacingly, well, that gets old after the second time you see it.

You now have a mental image of Gendo dressed like a silent movies era villain (cape, top hat, and complete with long twirled mustache with his beard), with a helpless Rei (in a slinky blue dress with ruffles on the front) tied to the train tracks as Shinji (as a U.S. Cavalryman) tries to rescue her.

You're welcome :)

To Iraesmarter: Misato calls Shinji doomed because Rei wants to do Science to him, and conduct Empirical Research on him. Rei also used those terms during their little 'gossip session'. Right now, Misato is the only person who has an inkling that Rei's completely bonkers, which is what caused her to want to drink all that knowledge away, because it was just... wrong.

Fortunatly, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, she succeded in burying the memories in an alcohol induced haze.

Rei is getting better at talking to people, as evidenced with her conversation with Hikari concerning Shinji's various merits and demerits.


	14. Chapter 14

Deep inside the Geo-Front, deep within the bowels of NERV's secret headquarters, there is a vast cavern, filled with hundreds of red spheres, each resting in a depression in the floor. This was the core room, and if one had a sufficient security clearance, one would be told this was where the spare cores for the Evangelion units were kept. This, of course, was a lie. There had only ever been one spare core, and it had been used a long time ago. These cores would only work for specific people, specific children, should they ever be unlucky enough to be called upon to serve in the war.

In another room, deeper than the core room, was another core. This one did not rest in a half sphere in the floor, however. This one sat emplaced in a large rig of cables and sensors. It glowed slightly in the dark, fed by a small electrical current that ran through it.

The room was otherwise empty, save for a single folding metal chair that sat facing it.

Gendo Ikari sat in the chair, watching the core. The core, having no eyes, was incapable of watching him.

He spoke suddenly, shattering the silence. "He certainly is quite the trooper, Shinji. He's been undergoing almost a week's worth of harmonics tests, every day, back to back, without any problems. They're running sleep deprivation tests on him. He shows up, suits up, and enters the test plug, and leaves almost twenty hours later. No complaints, ever. He doesn't know why these tests are being done, and even if he did I doubt that he would understand the reasoning behind them."

There was no response from the core, no change in the hum of the electronics, no flicker in the red light emanating from the core. There never was.

"I think that he's adjusted well. He has some friends now, and I think that Rei is showing an interest in him. You'll get to meet her eventually. I've had to make some adjustments to the scenario for them. To be allowed to return to nothingness might be all that she wants right now, but when the time comes I hope that she will make the choice that you failed to."

He shifted in the seat. This room was the only room in which the mask was removed. Where he did not show the stoic, unflinching exterior he displayed to the rest of the world. Thus, what he felt on the inside now raged across his features.

He exploded into a stream of profanity, venting anger and fear and frustration at the unresponsive red core. It accepted it as it would his tears later on during the visit, silently. His anger spent for the moment, he continued.

"He's turning into a handsome young man. He still looks a lot like you, but around the edges I see more of myself creeping in. In another world, another life, I could see him having to beat the girls off with a stick. He's too broken right now though to attract their attentions. That's one of the reasons I decided to change things. He was quite taken with Rei when I introduced them. He was so angry with me, Yui. It was good to see him again. But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" His last comment dripped with scorn.

"I've finally found where your father is hiding his sorry self. He's been hanging out in France, of all places. I have men around him twenty-four hours a day now. I think that he'll be the first to die, when I make my move. I think that you would appreciate that."

If Yui cared at all that her husband was discussing the casual murder of her father, she gave no sign.

Gendo talked to her long into the night, relating a month's worth of news and information to her as it came to him. He did not write out scripts for his chats with her. He just talked as things came to him. At some points, he would explode with anger, at others, he would sob, telling her that he missed her so much. There was no way for them to know if any of it got through to her, if her mind was even awake inside the core and the mockup of the Evangelion chest socket, but there was no way he was going to chance having her absorb Shinji into the core with her. If that happened, he would do something drastic.

Kozo Fuyutsuki was waiting outside the room when Gendo eventually emerged, hours later. He handed him a cup of tea. "How is she?"

"The same as always. Not very talkative."

Kozo was unsure if Gendo was being serious or not. He sometimes was a little strange after his monthly visits to his wife's prison. "Well, it's to be expected."

"Perhaps. Is there any news?"

"Our agent handling the Jet Alone issue reports that all is in readiness for the demonstration in two days."

"Good. When do Dr. Akagi and Captain Katsuragi leave?"

"They left a few hours ago. They should touch down later today."

"Then all we need to do is wait and watch. Once this irritation is removed, we can again focus on the larger issues facing us."

"I take it that SEELE is blocking requests for Unit-02 to be accompanied with the E-Type load-out then."

"Indeed. They do so behind their U.N. pawn, the navel commander of the task group that has been tasked with transporting the unit and the Child. He states that under no circumstances would it be activated, and as such there is no need for equipment suited for underwater actions."

"And since it is the regular U.N. Forces that the Committee tasked with this mission, we have no jurisdiction."

"Correct. Our hands are tied, and we cannot take action. Or, that is what they believe. I will see to it that the Third Child is delivered to the convoy as soon as reasonably possible. If anything happens, he will be on hand to deal with it."

Kozo was taken aback. That was a bold move, considering the state of the game-board. "Do you think that wise? I don't know if we want to draw such attention to him just yet. Besides, is it even possible with Unit-02?"

"He will merely boost and amplify the girl's connection. There is no way that in the event of a battle that she would let someone else pilot her Evangelion, but she will be driven by the need to show off, and she will bring him along to watch how effortlessly she handles the Angels. She is proficient, according to all reports. We should not need him there, but his presence will be a precautionary measure."

"Hrmmm. If they are shipping us the unit with the B-Type equipment, what else is being brought over?"

"Only the onboard weapons systems, as well as some small, trivial accessories. Spare plugsuits for the Child, and whatnot."

Kozo nodded. "When do they leave?"

"The last report was that they depart Kiel tomorrow. I have not heard anything to suggest that the departure time has changed."

"It will be comforting to have all three battle ready units under our control. The Americans are nowhere near completion with Units 04 and 05, so we will not need to worry about them for some time."

"Yes. A trump card does you little good if you are unable to use it, after all. Is there anything else? I have paperwork to catch up on before my flight to Nevada."

"No, nothing else."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Hikari sighed as she glanced at Shinji's empty seat. He had been at Nerv for a week straight now, doing whatever it was he did. If Rei had not assured her that it was official NERV business, she would have suspected him of just ditching school, even if he wasn't the sort of person to do such things. He did hang out with two somewhat disreputable guys, after all.

_Official NERV business or not, his paperwork is piling up. I'll have to make sure that someone gets it to him. I suppose Toji or Ken could do it, but..._ She chewed on her lower lip, thinking. _I'll ask Rei to take it to him! That way he gets his homework, and she has an excuse to go talk to him. _

With Shinji's absence from school this past week, and with Rei's shyness, she doubted that Rei had spoken to the boy at all. This would kill two birds with one stone. Ikari would get his papers, and Rei could talk to him. _Of course, _she thought with mild annoyance, _that's assuming that she doesn't just silently hands him the paperwork. How do I make sure that they at least speak to each other?_

"Ayanami?"

Slowly, the blue haired girl turned from the window to Hikari. She looked at the class representative, not questioningly or attentively, but rather with a look that merely noted that she was standing there.

"Ikari's paperwork is piling up, since he hasn't been here for a few days. Can you take it to him after school today?"

"I am not scheduled to be on duty, Class Representative."

Hikari gave a short, nervous chuckle. "Yes, I know, but I figured, since you, you know, work with him and all, it would be better than sending someone else there."

_I see. She wishes to help maintain the security and secrecy situation. Another person might attempt to obtain information they should not have from his home, despite the lack of such information actually being there, and the Section-2 personnel._

"Will this preclude me from attending the Book Club meeting today?"

"What? Oh, no! Just make sure that you hand the paperwork to Ikari himself. Make sure that he understands that the school's not going to cut him any slack just because he's with NERV."

_The only reason we attend this school is due to the socialization requirements of the Evangelion Project. It does not matter if he maintains a perfect grade average or if he fails all of his classes._

"I will inform him of this."

"OK, then! Just tell me how it went tomorrow, alright?"

"Yes." Confused now, Rei turned back to the window, watching the other girl retreat to speak to students Suzahara and Aida. _I do not see how she can expect more than one possible outcome to this event. I will deliver the papers to him and impress on him the school's expectation that he continues to complete all assignments without regard to the fact that he is one of the only people that stands between them and extinction. She does not know of my other interests in him, so she cannot be speaking in regards to that._

"So what's up Hikari? What'd you talk to Ayanami about?"

Hikari looked smug. "I'm having her deliver Shinji's paperwork to him after school today. You two won't have to worry about it."

Ken sighed. "We're on duty today? When did that happen?"

"This isn't as punishment. This is your actual scheduled duty rotation."

Toji laughed. "I forgot all about that. Eh, it's not like it'll take that long, Ken. We'll still be able to hit up that shop before it closes."

Hikari's eye twitched. "What shop? If this is for another of those stupid spy cameras-"

Kensuke shook his head. "No, no, it's for another project. Completely unrelated to cameras, I promise."

She narrowed her her eyes as she gazed at him, in the manner of a cat watching a mouse. "What project that's completely unrelated to cameras?"

He shrugged. "Models. I build models, remember? That's all."

"Don't let me find out otherwise, Ken. I'm not going to go easy on you just because you're a friend."

He shrugged again. "Hey, I just sold the guy the thing. I didn't ask what he was going to use it for. Not my business if he wants to stick it in the girl's locker room."

"Well, it's my business. Just be glad that it was me who found it, and not someone else. Besides, what did you think he was going to use it for? What does a teenager do with a security camera?"

Quickly losing interest in their conversation, Rei's gaze wandered over the other reflections in the glass. _Why is it that he takes up so much of my attention? I have lost interest in many subjects I previously spent much time observing and testing. Unfortunately, the information I gathered from __them does not help me with Ikari. He is... difficult. This entire situation is difficult. I will need to take advantage of my task this afternoon, but what should I do? I am to merely deliver papers and instructions; there is no reason for me to stay longer at his residence. _A faint, almost imperceptible pinkish tint graced her features with that thought. _Based on observed data during our last encounter, he is attracted to me. He is, however, unsure as to how to broach the subject. He refuses to bring up our meeting at my apartment at all. He is... embarrassed about it. It is true, most subjects in our age group do not engage in such behavior. _She sighed quietly, eliciting a sidelong glance from the girl sitting next to her. Rei did not notice the look, as she was now actually staring out the window into the rain.

Sakura poked her friend, Akio in the shoulder. Pointing to Rei, she whispered to her friend. "What was that all about?"

Akio glanced at the silent girl staring out the window. Matching Akura's whisper, "What? What'd she do?"

"She sighed. Like, you know, a **sigh**, sigh."

"Maybe Ikari's melting the ice around her heart. You know-" her voice taking on a conspiratorial tone, "-I heard that he visited her home. Like, the home she has, without parents?"

The fact that Ayanami lived on her own, for unspecified reasons, was old news. It had merely added to her mystique. But for Sakura, the news that Ikari had been over to see her at her home, well, that was new news.

"He visited her at home? Really? When was this?"

"Oh, like two weeks ago. It was that day neither of them showed up for school, remember? Well, my older brother, he works with one of the construction agencies here, and he said that he saw him going to that hovel of an apartment building that she lives in."

Sakura's jaw dropped. "What? For real?" She shot another glance at the girl sitting next to her. "Say, do you think that they're an item? I mean, I don't see Ikari as the type to ask anyone out, you know? Going over to her place and them playing hooky together... that's a bold move for him."

"Maybe that why he's with her? I mean, if she said no, it's not like she would tell anyone else. She's kinda nonthreatening in that way. Besides, he does pilot a giant robot. Maybe she's just nerdy and that's enough for her to get past how... meh he is."

Both girls turned to look at Rei, who quietly sighed again, still oblivious to the world around her, lost in her own thoughts.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei looked at the door. There was a nameplate bearing the Captain's name, but there was nothing to suggest that Ikari also resided here. She knocked on the door.

There was no answer.

_Of course. Ikari is at NERV Central preforming the tests. Captain Katsuragi has left to attend some sort of meeting. No one is home. I will need to wait until Ikari returns for the evening. _She glanced around the hallway. _It will be several hours until the tests are complete for the day. It would be better to obtain entry to one of the Section 2 stations in this building. In my apartment building, they have stations on the ground floor, basement, roof and the same floor as my apartment. Thus, I they should have a similar setup here, if not more, to account for the security complement for both the Operations Director and the Third Child._

As she turned to begin her search for the Section 2 men, the door behind her opened. Turning back, she saw a most curious creature standing in the doorway. The large bird cocked it's head to one side as it looked at her, a move that she mirrored, tilting her head slightly to one side. The penguin warked at her, and turned to move back inside, leaving the door open. Feeling somewhat absurd, Rei followed the bird, closing the door behind her.

The apartment was much larger than her own, and despite the abundance of items present, it was still more neatly kept than hers. Placing her bag on the table in the kitchen, she watched the bird move back to the television show it apparently had been watching before her arrival. She watched it for a few moments, but it seemed to be ignoring her. _Apparently it is at least semi-sentient, but obviously it is some sort of pet. I will need to learn more about it later, but for now I should see what information there is to be gathered from his living quarters._

Moving around in the kitchen, she found the refrigerator that had food in it well stocked with both a variety of items and alcohol. Closing the door, a note taped to the front caught her eye. _It appears to be a list of chores to be done on specific days. Ikari seems to be responsible for mainly cooking and cleaning of the apartment. _She thought back to their chance encounter in her own home; before the failed experiment. He was obviously unhappy with the state of cleanliness her home was in. _Is this because he is responsible for cleaning this place? Does a level of cleanliness that does not meet his standards bother him, even if it does not affect him?_

Still mulling that over, she moved down the hall. One room had a small heart shaped sign taped to the door. _Shinji's Lovely Suite. This is obviously his room. _Her hand hesitated for a moment over the sliding door, and then she opened it to peer into his room.

It was almost as spartan has her own home, having only a western style bed, a desk and chair, and a dresser. No decorations, no nick-knacks, no souvenirs. His school books were there, as was his bag and laptop. His bed was rumpled, and it looked like he had just thrown the blankets over the bed when he had woken up. Inside his closet were several school uniforms. Like her, it seemed to be the only clothing that he had. A cello case sat in one corner of the closet. She ran a hand over the cheap leather exterior, before turning to the dresser. Her eyes widened slightly. Atop the dresser lay his SDAT. _Strange, _she thought, picking up the music player, _that he would not have it with him now. I do not think that I have ever seen him without it for a prolonged period of time. But, he will be immersed in LCL for the majority of his time at NERV. He would have little use of it there._

Slowly, she tentatively placed the headphones in her ears, and activated the player. As the sounds of his music filled her ears, she trembled with shock. _This is... this is beautiful. Is this what he listens to constantly?_ Rei had observed people listening to music before, but the music favored by her classmates was nothing like this. Pocketing the player, she perused the drawers of the dresser whilst listening to the music, slightly swaying in time with the notes as the waltz played.

Moving back to the desk, she slid open the drawer, and found the first items of real interest other than the cello and SDAT. There was a picture of Captain Katsuragi in civilian clothing, and Rei noted with a twitching eye the sheer level of indecency of her garments. _There is even an arrow pointing to her breasts! She is attempting to draw his attention to her... but she obviously is not engaged in the sort of relationship with him where such attention would be appropriate... I am confused. _Putting the photo back, she lifted a very crumpled piece of paper up out of the drawer. In the exact center of the paper was a single word: 'Come.'. The wrinkles suggested to her that the paper had been discarded and recovered. _Perhaps it is a message from the Commander, instructing him to come to Tokyo-3. _She carefully put it back in place, and removed the third item of interest, another plain sheet of paper, but this one was a note written in a crisp and careful script, which she immediately recognized as being the Commander's handwriting. Her hands shook slightly as she read the note detailing the replacement of his music player, the tape and his clothing. She flipped the paper over, looking for more, but that seemed to be the end of it.

_It is not signed. Does Ikari even know that it is from the Commander? Why would he not communicate praise to him for successfully defeating the Angel? There is nothing there of the things that we speak of when we converse. _Chewing on the inside of her bottom lip, she searched the rest of the room for additional pages to the note, but found none. She put the room back to the way she found it, sans the SDAT, which she was still listening to, and moved onto the rest of the apartment.

Captain Katsuragi's room was a mess, looking as if someone had dumped all the contents of her drawers out on the floor, in addition to several discarded beer cans. A calendar on the wall marked the upcoming Friday with a reminder to fill out Shinji's evaluation sheets.

_It must have to do with keeping track of his socialization, as she mentioned before. It is unfortunate that the sheets are undoubtedly electronic in nature and that she would not have them here for study. It would be interesting to see what she has to say about him to the higher echelon commanders, namely, Commander Ikari.  
_

Finding nothing more noteworthy in the apartment, she returned to the main room, where the penguin was still watching the television. She retrieved the new book from the school's library that she had selected that day during her visit to the book club, being a psychology reference book, which was not the normal fare for the more literature minded club. The club president had long ago given up on trying to get her to select literature pieces for reading and discussion. He had also long ago given up on trying to get her to discuss the books she did read.

She settled down to read the book and listen to his music. After an hour of reading, the bird began to slowly slide closer and closer to her, stopping whenever she lowered the book to stare at it. By the second hour, it was sitting in her lap, apparently reading with her. It was not, as she would later reflect, unpleasant.

During the third hour, it began to warble and squack at her, moving off of her lap and disappearing to the kitchen, only to come back. She watched it preform this ritual several times, not understanding. _Why is it doing this? Is there something that it wishes from me?_ Pushing off the couch, she followed it into the kitchen, where it stared at an upper cabinet intently, shifting it's head to stare at her occasionally. Rei opened the cabinet, recalling the presence of tins of sardines from her previous inspection. Looking around for the bowel she had seen previously, she located the dish on the floor, marked as Pen^2, and filled it with the canned fish. The bird, warbled again and began to eat. Rei's stomach growled as she watched him.

_He will not be back for another four hours. I should obtain sustenance. _She looked around the kitchen. _The question is whether I should obtain it from the items here, or from on outside source. While I doubt that Ikari would be unhappy that I consumed some of the food present in the apartment, there is the chance for the social stigma concerning theft. I passed several convince stores and small food stands on my way here. It will take a negligible amount of time to obtain a meal from any of them. _

Removing the SDAT and returning it to his room, as she did not want it to get wet on her trip to get food, she was putting on her shoes when the front door open, and to her surprise, Shinji stood there in the doorway staring at her. _He is home early. Why? _

He rubbed his eyes, not believing the information that they relayed to his brain. She noted that he looked very worn out and tired, with deep circles under his eyes. He still smelled slightly of LCL, the metallic smell of blood that hung in the air, a scent which she knew all too well was almost impossible to get out, as it seeped into one's pores, in addition to being inhaled, and occasionally swallowed while immersed in it.

"Ayanami?"

"Ikari." She took off her shoes again, and waited for him to come in.

Cautiously, he shot a look down the hall back towards the stairwell, where one of his escorts was smoking a cigarette. It was plain, even to Shinji, that he was ignoring them. Muttering something under his breath that Rei did not catch, he stepped inside and removed his shoes.

"Ummm... why are you here? How did you even get in?" As he questioned the girl, she noted that his voice sounded dead and empty. The sleep deprivation tests were certainly taking a toll on him.

"I was instructed to bring you your assignments and papers from class, and to inform you that the school administrators will not accept the fact that you are entrusted with protecting the human race from extinction for failure to complete the assignments within the allotted make up time." She paused, studying his face as he moved into the kitchen. "I was let in by the penguin."

"Pen-Pen?"

_Ah. Pen-Pen. Pen^2. Pen to the second power. Of course._ "Yes." She watched him open the cabinet with the fish. "I have already feed him." Seeing his confused look, she added "He was asking for me to feed him. It was an easy enough task."

"H-how long have you been here?"

"Four hours. I arrived here after my work at school was completed."

"Four hours?" _Why has she been here that long just waiting? Did she want to talk to me?_

"Yes." _Why does he repeat what I say and state the obvious?_

"Er... why? I mean, um, you didn't have to hang around until I got back, I mean, I'm home early today because of some technical problems at HQ, I wasn't going be to be home until much later, and with Miss Misato gone, there wouldn't have been anything for you to do..."

"I was instructed to deliver the papers to you."

"But you didn't have to waste your time just waiting here, you could have left them on the table."

"You did not leave my NERV Identification Card at my apartment when it seemed that I was not home."

Shinji was at a loss for words to respond to that, but his body once again betrayed him by blushing, despite how bone-tired he was. The awkwardness of the situation was furthered by the fact that his stomach, having not been feed since he had woken up that morning, growled loudly.

"Umm... I'm going to make something to eat. If... if you've been here since school let out, you haven't had anything to eat either, right?"

"Correct. I have not eaten since the midday meal." _Interesting. It appears that he will offer me sustenance next. This is... nice._

"Well, it's too easy to make something for two people instead of just one. I mean, it's the least I can do since you had to waste your time just waiting here."

Thinking of the SDAT player sitting in it's spot on his dresser, a faint pink tinge spread across her features, unnoticed by the tired and hungry boy. "It was not a waste of time."

_What does she mean by that?_ It would be a question he would soon forget, however. He began pulling various items out from the cabinets and refrigerator, setting them up on the counter.

"Does soup sound good? I kinda just want something simple tonight." _Hah. I wasn't even going to eat. I was going to go collapse on my bed._

Rei blinked. "If you desire something simple, there is instant soup in the lower cabinets."

He shook his head. "I couldn't make you eat that; I mean, that stuff's terrible. Besides, soup's real easy to make, plus I'm going to cheat a little."

She watched as he began heating up some vegetable broth, and dumped some left over rice into it. As he stirred it, he turned back to her. "Umm... if you want, you can cut up some of the vegetables. There's some knives in that drawer over there."

Suddenly self conscious as she watched him move about the kitchen, Rei hesitated before speaking. "I... I do not know how to prepare food for a meal."

Tired as he was, that got through his sleep deprived brain. "But... don't you live on your own?"

"I obtain sufficient sustenance from instant food and delivery. I... I do not know how to cook." _Why does it bother me so to admit this to him? This has never been an issue before. _

"Oh. Well, if you want, you can just watch." He motioned to one of the chairs. _She's just like Misato! How can she live like that? _

"Umm... so what I'm doing is rinsing off the vegetables. I'm going to chop them up, and put them in the broth and rice mix. I'm using some leftover rice, so it won't take long for it to soften up, but the veggies are still going to be sort of crunchy when it's done."

She watched without comment as he diced the carrots and celery and slid them into the soup, which he then stirred. He yawned, and then blushed. "I'm sorry, I'm just really tired from the tests."

"The tests at NERV."

"Yeah... They're doing something that has to do with me not sleeping... I'm not sure why. They tried to explain it to me before but I didn't understand." He yawned again.

"You said that they let you go early today."

"Yeah, something went wrong with some of the sensor equipment. They didn't say much about it to me, but they called Lt. Ibuki back in to take a look at it. She sent me home because they needed to check some things out."

_Interesting. I wonder if there was an actual equipment issue or if there was a breakthrough. _She watched him as he turned back to the soup. _He seems... more at ease with the stove than speaking with me._

"You enjoy cooking."

He let out a nervous chuckle. "It's... yeah. I like cooking. Taking the ingredients and making something new with them. It's also... calming, I guess." He continued stirring for a few minutes.

He pulled two bowls from the cabinet and poured an equal measure of soup into each. He set one down in front of Rei. "Here. Nothing fancy, but it's good."

They ate the soup in silence. While Rei was no stranger to some of the fare of the finer restaurants of Tokyo-03, as during the periodic meals that she shared with the Commander were catered by a variety of five star restaurants, the simple soup that sat in front of her commanded her attention far more than any of the food of those dinners. _Does this meal tie in with what Captain Katsuragi said about things tasting good in addition to being sufficient._ _Perhaps I should preform some research into the field of cooking. The process that he used to create this soup did not seem to be very complex. I should be able to easily replicate it. _

After finishing her soup, Rei watched Shinji as he continued to eat. He looked up from his bowl.

"So... umm, how was it?"

"It tasted nice."

He finished his own bowl, and rose to put it into the sink, more for something to do than out of a burning need to clean up. He yawned again, rubbing at his eyes.

"Umm... So..." _Oh man... all I want to do is go to sleep but I can't just tell her to leave... What do I do? _

"You should take advantage of your extra time to sleep. There is no telling how long it will take them to resolve whatever error they encountered today."

"Yeah... you're right, Ayanami. I hope that I'm not being rude or anything, but-"

"It is of no import. Go to sleep. I will clean the dishes used for our meal before I go."

_What? _"A-Ayanami, you don't need to worry about that, I-I can-"

Rei held up a hand, silencing his protests. "Go to sleep Ikari. I will ensure that the dishes are properly sanitized before I leave."

He yawned again, despite his best efforts to the contrary. "A-are you sure? I-I mean, I can take-"

She stood up and grabbed his arm, and half drug, half guided him to his room, pushing him inside. "I will take care of it." She shut the door on the startled boy, whispering, "I will take care of you.", slightly echoing the trail end of their conversation high in the mountains before the commencement of Operation Yashima.

She turned and went back to the kitchen. She had seen the cleaning supplies underneath the sink before. Obtaining soap and a scrub pad, she went to work on the pot he had used for the soup, mechanically and systematically making her way to the bowls, and then the knife and spoons. Selecting one of the small towels hanging on a rack near the door, she proceeded to dry them.

She idly wished for the refurbished autoclave that sat in her lab. Whenever she decided to clean what non-disposable dishes she had, she would run them through the super-heated steam to truly sterilize them. Drying her own hands now that she was finished, she decided that the boiling water and soap would have to do in this instance.

Moving as silently as she always did back down the hall, she stopped outside his room door, listening for any sounds that he might be still awake. She not discern any sounds, and when she slid the door open, she was rewarded by the soft, even sounds of his breathing.

Creeping into his room, she noted that he had only removed his button up shirt and had untucked the t-shirt he wore underneath it. He was otherwise dressed, and lay sprawled out on top of his sheets, fast asleep, and making no sign of waking as she watched him. _He has preformed well during this course of tests. Unfortunately, there has been no sign whatsoever of the infinite synchronization score he displayed during the fight with the Third Angel entity. It will be interesting to see what sensor error was detected today during the tests. _

Despite a distinct lack of the infinite synchronization that he had shown during his first battle being shown in any of his following engagements and tests with either the test plug or the Evangelion, Rei had discarded the displayed score of 00% as an infinite synchronization. However, it was becoming clear to her that she would need to figure out some other way to induce a replication of the event, but she was at a loss as to how exactly to do this.

_Perhaps I should shelve this idea, and work on another hypothesis in the meantime. I could follow up on remote synchronization. Tech Division 1 has yet to come up with a satisfactory explanation for the Evangelion's 'impossible' action that day inside the cage. Granted, they have been working on other issues, but the fact remains that Unit-01 did something that by all rights it should not have done. _

As she stood there, his phone, causally tossed on the desk, began to ring. Quickly, she grabbed it and answered the call.

"Pilot Ikari's Phone."

Lt. Ibuki's confused voice came over the line. "Rei? Is that you?"

"Yes. Pilot Ikari is indisposed at the moment, and is not capable of responding to this call."

Semi-unintelligible sounds were audible. _Lt. Ibuki is most likely conferring with the other technicians present. She is wasting time by not relaying to me her message for Ikari._

"Um, OK... Rei, can you let him know that he doesn't need to show up until about three in the afternoon tomorrow? We think that we've fixed the issue, but the MAGI are withholding judgment right now, so we're not going to begin the tests again until then, regardless of if they give us a response or not."

"I will inform him of this, Lieutenant."

"OK. Good night, Rei."

Rei ended the call without a parting salutation, which did not surprise or bother Maya. She turned to Aoba and Makato, having called both of them back in after she arrived on-site.

Aoba spoke up first. "Did she say why she was answering his phone?"

Maya shook her head. "No, she just said that he was 'indisposed' at the moment."

Spinning around slowly in his chair, Makato shook his head. "You know, I would have pegged him to try and get some extra sleep with being released early from the tests. He's a wreck."

Aoba grinned. "I think that in during our time at the range some of me must have rubbed off on him."

Maya snorted. "Somehow, I doubt that anything he might have learned from you wouldn't impress Rei that much."

Rei, still holding his phone, watched Shinji as he slept. _I am faced with two options. I can remain here, or I can return home and connect to the MAGI to see what happened with today's test._

He twitched slightly, his head tilted at a slight angle. Once again, she was struck at how... much more relaxed he looked when asleep as opposed to when awake. Watching his eyes flutter behind his eyelids, caught in the grip of REM sleep, she made up her mind. Scientific curiosity would have to wait for tomorrow. She would talk to the MAGI later.

Rei flipped through the phone's utilities, looking to see if he had set the alarm function. Sure enough, there it was, set for six in the morning. She canceled the alarm, and folded the phone shut, placing it back onto the desk. She stiffened slightly as he twitched again, and then rolled over onto his side.

Relaxing, she resisted the urge to sit on the bed next to him. _If he were to awake next to me, based on his previous reactions to extreme close physical contact of that nature, his immediate reaction would not be conducive towards further research._

Instead, she picked up his SDAT player and slipped from his room back to the main area after retrieving a folded, and thus presumably clean blanket from the washroom. Stripping down, she neatly folded her clothing and placed it on the floor next to the couch. Slipping the headphones back into her ears, wrapped up in the blanket, she settled down to listen to the music until she fell asleep.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Gendo sat at his desk, reading the report in his hands for the twentieth time. It had been submitted by Lt. Ibuki, who was running the in-depth consciousness tests on his son. Some of the sensors during the test today had reported random, highly fluctuating synchronization scores, while at the same time other sensors were reporting that synchronization was lost between pilot and the Evangelion.

They had stopped the tests after being unable to resolve the issue, and sent Shinji home as they attempted to determine the cause. Self diagnostics came back as clean, and tests run with the data collected showed a complete systems failure. The MAGI refused to return a judgment on the issue. Lt. Ibuki decided to replace the sensor equipment completely, in both Unit-01 and the sensor feeds to the control room. She submitted the preliminary report to his office, along with the projected time-line for the sensor replacement. It would be done by mid-morning.

Gendo, however, was not looking at the time-line for the sensor replacement. What he was looking at was the graph readouts of the synchronization score and the map of neural activity within the pilot. He would recognize that pattern anywhere.

It was the same when Yui decided to go into the Evangelion, that day. How this was possible, he wasn't sure. The safeguards were all there, all in place. Besides, with this core, it wasn't even supposed to be possible for this to happen. They had seen to that, when they pulled Yui's core out from Unit-01. She had resisted all attempts of salvage, and so he had moved onto his backup plan. It had taken the three of them over a year to create the spare, but they had done it.

Kozo stepped into the office, unannounced and bearing a coffee pot. "I see that you've read the report then." he said with a nod to the paperwork in Gendo's hand.

"How is this possible? The safeguards-"

"The safeguards worked, Ikari. Your son is still here. He has not been taken into the Evangelion. He sat there while the waveform patterns merged for ten minutes. Yui was taken seconds after they merged. His Ego-borderline was not compromised. Calm down."

Gendo threw the papers onto the desk. "The safeguards should have kept the waveform patterns from even merging in the first place. How? How, Fuyutsuki? We had to have missed something. What about the other pilots? I don't want anyone else going off half-cocked and getting absorbed into the damn things. Kyoko thought she knew what she was doing, and look what happened to her."

"While she should have waited, she was still taken in seconds after the patterns merged. It's just that she wasn't physically absorbed as well."

"For all the good that did. It didn't make salvage any more successful."

"One has to want to be salvaged in order to return. She didn't want to come back."

"And I was forced to order an image download from Unit-02 into her body, and we all know how spectacularly that failed."

"But your son is still here, Gendo. You can see that for yourself."

"I'm canceling this course of tests with the actual Evangelions. Sleep deprivation tests will only be done with the test bodies from now on. They have no cores, so there won't be any chance for assimilation."

Kozo shook his head. "It's your prerogative, of course. I'm just saying that the safeguards worked. If anything, we should be overjoyed to have solid concrete proof that they do."

"It's not solid enough. What if the only reason he wasn't taken in was because of the core? Unit-01's core is different from all other cores. There's still a chance that the other pilots could be absorbed into their Units. I will not make unnecessary sacrifices."

_How calmly you say that, Ikari. How calmly you discuss the breaking of children, claiming the necessity of torturing them mentally and emotionally. How you build them up, and then how neatly you knock them back down. How can you live with yourself?_

As if hearing what his old professor was thinking, Gendo turned from him to stare out the window. "Don't look at me like that. Instrumentality will not, must not, come to pass. I will not see mankind enslaved to the will of a group of power mad old men, no matter the cost. To live forever with no choice, no will but that which is given to you by another... there is no future in that."

Author's Notes:

To Cryptic Mirror: Rei's pondering of the ventilation system is a minor shout-out to Nobody Dies, but more of an explanation of why she seems to know her way around the air vents during the power outage. (Which will still be occurring, during Kagi's quest for secrets) At this time, I've got no plans to have her traipsing around causing chaos via the vents.


	15. Chapter 15

**Gendo Ikari Fact # 75: Despite any evidence to the contrary, Gendo Ikari is not, in fact, a vampire. That would suggest that at some point a vampire fed on him. **

Maya Ibuki silently cursed Aoba and his ridiculous page on the NERVnet. Standing in the Supreme Commander's darkened office as he looked through her test report was unpleasant enough, but she couldn't get those 'facts' out of her mind as she focused all of her willpower into standing still without trembling underneath that cold, implacable gaze.

**Gendo Ikari Fact #53: Gendo Ikari watched Samara's video. Twice. Eight days apart. Last month.**

"Lieutenant Ibuki."

"Yes Sir?"

"As of this moment, altered consciousness harmonics and synchronization tests will only be conducted with the test bodies. The Evangelion Units themselves will not be used. A repeat accident of the Unit-00 Activation Test will not be tolerated."

"Y-Yes sir!" Maya watched as her ultimate superior shifted his attention to another report. "Sir?"

Not bothering to look up the man shuffled through more papers as he answered. "Lieutenant."

"Sir, at this point we've gotten just about all we can get with the test bodies for these tests."

"Then this iteration of tests is concluded. Finalize your findings and submit your report."

"Yes sir."

She watched him for a few moments longer, growing ever more uncomfortable, unsure if she should take the silence as permission to leave or not.

Without looking up from his ever diminishing pile of papers, Gendo spoke again, no trace of any amusement or irritation present in his voice. "You may leave now, lieutenant."

"Yes Sir." Maya fled his office as quickly she could without it being glaringly obvious that she was fleeing. It did not work.

Gendo addressed his second in command, who's presence today, like in so many other meetings before this one, had gone unnoticed by the Lieutenant. "My plane leaves in an hour. I leave the rest of this to you."

"Will you be long in the United States? I would not put it past the old men to attempt something while we are 'distracted' by the Jet Alone project, and with Unit-02 being shipped with only the B-Type equipment."

"I'll be back in a few days. I will being touring the S2 Engine development labs officially. While it is possible for them to decide to do something brash, it won't get them very far. Unless they have decided to abandoned their own designs, there is nothing that they can do right now to hurt my scenario."

The bespectacled man rose, his knees popping after having been still for hours on end. Placing his hands in his pockets, Gendo stalked from the room and into the corridor.

Kozo smiled as he too left the room, the automated security system locking the door behind him. _Such confidence can be a flaw, Gendo. Do not put so much faith into the infallibility of your plans. Sometimes the smallest of things can have disastrous aftereffects. Will your kingdom be lost for want of a nail?_

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei's eyes snapped open as a ringing sound was heard emanating from Ikari's room. Throwing aside the blanket, she moved quickly but silently down the hall and into his room, noting that he was still asleep. Securing the phone, she noted the number was the same as last night's caller.

"Yes."

"Rei? This is Lieutenant Ibuki."

"Yes."

Maya rolled her eyes good naturedly. While she found the taciturn girl somewhat off-putting, she knew that it was just that the girl was the shy and quiet type, much as she was when she was younger, and to a much lesser degree, now. It helped her talk to the girl today in that she was half expecting the girl to answer Shinji's phone again.

"You can tell Shinji that the tests have been canceled indefinitely for the time being, so he doesn't need to come into NERV later. Also, the harmonics tests this weekend have been canceled by the Sub-Commander, so you're both free. Just remember to keep you phones on you, OK?"

"Yes."

"Umm... well, goodbye then, Rei."

"Yes."

Rei hung up, holding the folded phone in her hand as she watched Shinji sleeping. A small trickle of drool had crept out the corner of his mouth and run down his chin. He mumbled something, and rolled over onto his side, facing away from her. There was a low rumbling, mechanical sound, and the air conditioning kicked on. Rei shivered underneath the cool air as she thought.

_I do not see the need to awaken him in order to tell him that he needs not return to NERV. However, should he awaken later, he will immediately think himself late for the tests, and waste energy and effort in an attempt to get to NERV. I doubt that he would see a note on his desk in his panicked rush; in the past he has focused on one task to the exclusion of everything else, including personal harm when upset or worried. _

_Therefore, I should stay here to ensure that he does not mistakenly rush to NERV when he is not needed there._

She smiled, and placed the phone back onto his desk. Just as she was about to leave his room to return to the couch, she paused in the doorway, looking back at his still form. Biting her lip, she looked back down the hall to the main room.

_If he slept through the phone's ringer, he is in a deep sleep. He should not wake up for some time. Time enough for me to conduct research? _She cocked her head to one side, debating internally. _I should obtain some sort of garment to sleep in, if I am to sleep next to him. This would perhaps reduce his negative reactions to close proximity with my nude form. _

Moving to his closet, she pulled down one of the white shirts from it's hanger, putting it on. The fabric was soft, as he did not starch his uniform's shirts as the school required. Of course, neither did she. No one had bothered him about it, being who he was (a pilot), and no one had bothered her about her similarly unstarched shirts, being who she was (Rei).

Buttoning the middle few buttons, she looked at herself in the mirror. As she was a little shorter than Shinji, she noted that the shirt draped down and hid from view the normal anatomical features that social customs deemed to be inappropriate for public display. Pleased with her new garment, she didn't quite skip over to his bed, only to stop just before lying down.

_Lying with both of us exposed to the air over top of his sheets would not be conducive to proper sleep. Forced removal of the sheets below him would most likely result in his waking up. I should obtain the blanket that I used during the night on the couch._

Quickly fetching her blanket, she stretched out next to him, covering them both. She closed her eyes and prepared to fall asleep.

A few minutes later, she opened them again, frowning. _This is not going at all as my hypothesis suggested. Sleep is neither coming, nor do I feel particularly warm and fuzzy, as in our previous close proximity encounters. Is this not how people sleep together? Are we not sharing the same bed?_

The ceiling refused to give her the answers she sought. This was perfectly fine with her, however. Of course, if the ceiling suddenly had spoken to her, she probably would have forgotten all about her current research project in lieu investigating the sapient architecture.

_Hypothesis: Subjects should have a shared level of dress. Ikari is more clothed than I. Perhaps removing more of his clothing would result in a more favorable outcome._

_Hypothesis: Subjects do more than share a common sleeping area. Perhaps there is an emphasis on physical contact? It would also increase the efficiency of shared body heat with increased surface contact, as well as make better use of the limited space constraints of the sleeping area._

_Disrobing Ikari is not likely to be the more advisable experiments at this time, due to the possibility of him waking up. While there is that same chance in increasing our shared body heat via a much closer physical proximity, it should be less, due to the lack of specific repeated contact actions._

Rolling over onto her side so that she was facing his back, she scooted over to Shinji, wrapping her arms around him, and her eyes widened as one of his legs intertwined with hers. Resting her forehead on the base of her neck, she wrinkled her nose as she breathed in the faint coppery smell of LCL. It would soon fade into the background, as she knew from experience. When it was like this, after the mandatory scrub-down showers and a few hours, it was barely perceivable, and that was only when you hadn't been near it for a while that it caught your attention. Still, Rei had noted in the past an unconscious stigma associated with the smell of blood. It was more than likely a defensive mechanism, she had reasoned back in the early days of wider socialization, against things that made you bleed. Blood was supposed to stay on the inside, after all. If something was making you bleed, the correct response would be to end the event, either by running away or by killing the offending party.

This was all old news to the girl, however. However, the fact that Ikari had killed three things that had made him bleed, or at the very least, caused him severe sympathetic pain and injuries due to inflicting wounds to Unit-01, but had neither killed nor run away from a fourth being to do so (and this one had actually caused him physical damage!) had not escaped her notice. Her confusion and interest in him was only heightened by this fact, and by the fact that he had assaulted that same fourth being (technically second, if one was listing them chronologically by encounter, but fourth when sorted in terms of power) when it had appeared that he had been ready to do the same harm to her.

He was a very intriguing research subject, all for a variety of reasons. He was also very warm. This experiment, so far, was providing empirical evidence supporting her physical contact with him equating to the flutterings of her heart in droves.

It was with this thought that she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, unconsciously drawing him closer to her.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Ritsuko smiled halfheartedly as Misato vented her anger on the non-offending locker.

"You know, if you keep doing that, you're probably going to break your foot."

Misato paused in her assault on the now severely dented door. Sighing in frustration, she smoothed out her dress uniform's skirt. "What about you? You were pretty mad in there. Why aren't you breaking down a locker?"

The doctor smiled grimly, her eyes shining underneath her glasses. "Because when I get back to Central, I'm going to be asking the MAGI to find out just how those bastards know about the A.T. Field. If they want to play at industrial espionage, well, just wait until I unleash the MAGI on them."

Misato slammed a fist into her other hand. "Yeah, how the hell did they know about that? What is Section 2 doing, if stuff like that is getting out to the public?" She snorted. "That silly thing doesn't even look like it could fend off an N2 mine. How do they think that it'll do against an Angel?"

"Without an A.T. Field, it can't hope to survive an engagement. That armor might be fine against terrestrial foes, but even it will fail against the Angels. It's not even not up to spec the Evangelion's armor standards. Of course," she said with a smile, "Our armor is very advanced."

Misato's frown grew deeper. "Yeah, but just because the Evangelions can survive N2 blasts doesn't mean that we should send untrained pilots up to act as bait in them."

Ritsuko rolled her eyes. "Are you still harping on about that? Please, Misato. I thought you were out for blood where the Angels were concerned."

"... Well, we could have told him that was the plan from the get-go. Hell, you didn't even tell me about it until you dropped that bomb on us in the cage."

"Commander Ikari's idea, not mine. If it had been up to me, we would have had him there as soon as possible for training. I don't know what the Commander's deal is."

"Well, I guess that we're just lucky that he was able to deal with the Angel without any training. Imagine trying to explain to him afterward that we sent him up as bait for a concentrated N2 attack. If my commanders had used me like that during the wars, I'd have wanted to kill them."

"It's a moot point now, anyway. He's come a long way from just being a rookie kid. Well, in the Entry Plug at any rate. Outside it, he's still just a shy little boy with an inferiority complex."

Misato, now examining her makeup in the mirror, turned to look at the doctor, who was straitening out the lines of her own skirt. "A what? I thought those made people overcompensate and over-do things."

"They can, but in some cases, like Shinji's, it leads to a low self esteem, social withdraw, and in his case, a predisposition to apologizing for everything."

Misato sighed. "Yes, he does do that a lot." She looked at the time on her phone, and then groaned. "We need to get going, otherwise we'll miss the big demonstration."

"As if having that over-sized toy of theirs walk around in a circle is much of a demonstration."

Misato shrugged. "It's more than what Shinji was able to do in Unit-01."

"Hey, I thought that you were on our side!"

Misato chuckled as they left the washroom that had been set aside for the NERV visiting party. "Oh, I'm on our side alright. I'm just saying that if their toy takes more than four steps it's got us beat on initial openings."

"No they won't. They don't have an Extinction Level Event causing alien organism waiting to get, and I'm quoting Aoba here, mind you, 'it's shit ruined'."

"He does have a way with words, doesn't he?" Misato said in a thoughtful tone of voice.

"It must come from writing songs for that band of his. It's certainly a visceral enough image."

"Yeah... So I **suppose** that even if they can walk around some, and pick up a tank or whatever else they've got planned, we're still ahead of them." As they entered the main conference room, from where the gigantic robot would be operated and show off on the huge display screen, Misato pointed to the 'command center'. "They can't honestly be running this thing from a few laptops. I mean, I know it doesn't take even one of the MAGI's full attention to monitor the linkups and everything with the Evangelions, but it seems like it'd take more than just a couple laptops."

"So you do pay attention during our briefs! And here I thought you sleep through them all." Ritsuko smiled at the frowning captain. "I highly doubt that those laptops are controlling the Jet Alone. They have to be remote terminals to the servers running the AI for the robot." She laughed, the sound harsh and ugly. "As if you can substitute a person like that. I mean, the MAGI are as close to true AI as anything out there, but they are learning computers. Heuristic machines. This thing's just been programmed to deal with different circumstances. 'Every possibility or situation that could take place', my ass. You can't program for everything, because there will always be something that surprises you. That robot is not a god."

Misato, neatly arranging the beers that had been delivered by that most helpful waiter into a semi circle in front of her shushed the chattering doctor with a wave of her hand. "Look, I think they're about to start."

Indeed, the chairman for the NHIS Jet Alone Prime project had taken to the raised dais again. Tapping the microphone twice to gather the assembled scientists, researchers, military representatives, and assorted press, he cleared his throat.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, in a few moments we will be beginning the first public demonstration of the Jet Alone Prime system. While the technicians are finalizing the system checks, I'll take this time to go over the planned activities. If you wish, you may also take a look at your programs, and you'll see them listed on page fifty-six.

First, the Jet Alone Prime will be taken out of it's standby mode. Then, it will walk, then run, along a five mile track, avoiding obstacles. We wouldn't want to damage the cities we're protecting, now do we?" A small tittering of laughter accompanied this second jab to the Evangelion Project, as the self inflicted damage to Tokyo-3 was a matter of public record. Both women seethed silently at their table, each glad that an Ikari wasn't here. Misato, glad that Shinji wasn't here, as he was all to aware of the damage he had done to the city and felt horrible for it, sometimes prone to staring at pictures of the damaged buildings for hours on end, and Ritsuko, glad that Gendo wasn't there, because he would just sit there silently and stare at the man, and not do anything to defend his project. Sometimes she felt that he cared too little for the reputation the Evangelion Project and NERV had. To him, as long as they were hailed as the only ones capable of dealing with the Angelic threat, it did not matter how anyone else viewed them. Feared, loved, hated, or ridiculed, it was all the same to him. It was all beneath his notice. Hell, he did nothing to stop the proliferation of that ridiculous page on NERV's own internal network that openly mocked him with over the top 'facts' about his habits and daily life. She had never seen him eat baby seals for dinner, nor had she ever noticed him having a devil's tail in any state of undress. And she knew for a fact that his tongue was not forked, or made of silver.

"After the track, Jet Alone Prime will pick up and move several objects, ranging from a tank, all the way down a small wooden box. This will demonstrate it's ability to treat different objects with different levels of care. Finally, it will move out to the firing range, where it will demonstrate the laser cannons built into the arms. We, of course, do not believe in having weapons that can be dropped or lost during combat." There was a much smaller amount of laughter accompanying this jab, mostly from the military representatives. They were the only other ones who should even have clearance allowing them near battle footage from the encounters. That this smarmy man was even alluding to weapons being dropped or lost was a grave breach of security. Misato shifted her head slightly to the wall she had seen their 'uniformed' S2 escort standing at. Still wearing his sunglasses, his expression was still easy to see. If looks could kill, the man's frown would have incinerated the Jet Alone chairman.

Ducking her head in close to a completely still Ritsuko, her own drink stuck halfway to her lips, she whispered softly into the other woman's ear. "I think he might just be getting a visit from our S2 man. He looks ready to kill."

With great effort, the blond placed her glass down on the table. "This is terrible. We need to let Central know that someone is feeding out information like a sieve. What else is being leaked from our offices and the MAGI?"

"Well, we can't leave just yet. We need to at least watch this damn thing do it's little walk around, they've got the airfield closed down for the duration of the demonstration."

Ritsuko crossed her arms, glaring at the chairman who was now speaking with one of the techs by the table with their laptops. "I'll find out everything he knows, even if I have to wring it out of him myself." she muttered darkly.

"And now, if you'll turn your attention to the screen, you'll be the first to see Jet Alone Prime 'wake up' in a public demonstration!" Waving his arm to the screen like an overpaid actor to the impressively large display, the image of the rotating NHIS logo snapped to several live feeds of the Jet Alone Prime. The chairman nodded to the waiting technicians, and then stepped off the stage, taking the microphone with him.

There was a deep rumble, heard through the walls of the building, as the slouched robot rightened itself, standing up, as several long rods pulled out of it's back, being the graphite control rods for the on-board nuclear reactor that powered the massive weapons platform. Ritsuko shook her head in disgust at the moronic design.

The assembled guests clapped politely as the robot took it's first public steps, with the chairman grinning like a proud parent. "And there you have, Ladies and Gentlemen, the first public activation! Alright, go ahead and start it on the track."

On the screen, Jet Alone Prime moved it's arms around in circles, and then began walking towards the beginning of the circular track, eating up the distance with ease.

Misato poked her friend in the shoulder. "Well, it's walking."

Before the outraged woman could respond to the obvious jab, the hall was suddenly filled with a fast paced beeping, coming from one of the laptops. Most of the people looked over to the techs, who were frantically typing commands, with one on his cell phone, talking hurriedly with someone.

Jet Alone Prime had reached the beginning of the track, and had passed it, continuing on a straight line.

The chairman laughed nervously. "Hey, guys, it's pretty impressive, but can we move the robot onto the track? No need for improv here."

The tech on the phone hung up and made a cutting motion at his neck. "It's not responding to the command signals! We're locked out of the interface!"

"What? What's going on?"

"It's gone rogue sir. We're attempting to access the secondary remotes now, from the main server site."

Another tech suddenly shouted, his voice thick with fear. "I've got abnormal readings in the reactor! It's heating up! The cooling system's not functioning!"

The chairman dropped the microphone and rushed over to the laptops. Throughout the room people began to trade nervous looks.

Pulling at the collar of his shirt, the chairman retrieved his microphone and coughed. "Well, it seems that we are having a slight technical difficulty. The... ah... the... well, the fact of the matter is that we've lost all communication with the command module for the unit, and the on-board reactor is currently heating up, as the cooling system seems to be malfunctioning. Now, this is not great news, but once a certain temperature is reached in the reactor, the control rods will automatically be released back into position inside, in order to bring the fission reaction down. Once the rods are automatically released, the system is designed to go into an emergency stand-down mode. So, we're still getting a demonstration today, but just not the one we had planned!"

"An emergency shut down seems like a good idea." Misato whispered in Ritsuko's ear. "Do we have one for the Evangelions? Besides popping the power plug and waiting for five minutes, that is."

Her eyes not moving from the screen, the bottle blond nodded. "We're working on one. Right now the best we have is to knock the pilot out by suddenly increasing the pressure in the Entry Plug via the LCL. It's not perfect, but it works."

The same tech who had been on the phone with the server side operators suddenly ran up to the chairman and handed him the phone. All color drained from the man, his face openly showing shocked horror.

Misato raised her eyebrows. "I think that someone just got some baaad news" she said in a sing-song tone, much to Ritsuko's irritation.

"Oh, grow up, will you? I'm trying to figure out what's going on."

Handing the phone off to the tech, who scurried back to his laptop, the chairman cleared his throat as the main screen went dark. "I apologize to you all, but it seems that the control rods are not dropping back into place. Jet Alone Prime will not be stopping. It's headed course will take it through the city of Toyota." He swallowed hard, sweat glistening on his face. "I'm told that the Jet Alone's reactor will experience total melt down sometime shortly after entering the city, if it maintains this speed. That will be in..." he looked back to the technician, who spoke up, his voice hushed and fearful.

"Three hours."

No one spoke in the hall. One of the generals present from the U.N. raised a hand, beckoning for a microphone.

"Well, let's stop this thing. What are our options as far as air strikes or ground forces?"

"Ground forces won't be here in time to do anything."

"I can have bombers from the 8th Bomber Wing down here in one hour."

"How about a missile strike? We can drop an N2 on it's head."

"No good! It's much to near a populated area for that!"

Misato grumbled under her breath. "Didn't stop them from dropping one almost on top of me." She suddenly stood up, much to Ritsuko's dismay. Shouting, not waiting for a microphone, she called out the rest of the room.

"I can have an Evangelion here in no more than thirty minutes. NERV will stop this walking disaster, **and** move it's radioactive corpse to a safe location."

Pulling down on her arm, Ritsuko hissed at the suddenly insane Operations Director. "Are you insane? You don't have the authority to deploy one of the Evangelions! Besides, the risk is too great! What happens if something goes wrong? We'll be down a unit and a pilot!"

Misato shook her head. "We need to do this, Rits. It's a chance to smash this silly thing into the ground, save a bunch of people, and nab some good PR for once. We'd be fools not to take it." She pulled some of the pins out of her hair, tossing her head back and letting her long, purple locks cascade down her back. "Besides, I always wanted to see a real giant robot fight!"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji woke up suddenly to the sound of his phone ringing. Rolling out of bed with a burst of energy that he hadn't felt since the beginning of the tests, he picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Shinji! It's Lieutenant Ibuki. Listen, I need you to get to NERV as soon as possible, there's an emergency! You'll be rolling out in thirty minutes. Section 2 will bring you in."

"A emergency? I'm on my way!"

Hanging up, he dashed through the apartment, fear and adrenaline pumping through him as he shoved his feet into his shoes, which for some reason felt way to small. This fact however, was not on his mind. _What could have happened? I don't think it's an Angel or anything. What else could they want an Evangelion for? Is this just another test? Why didn't they call me earlier for tests, it's almost three in the afternoon! _Throwing the door open, he dashed down the hall just as Section 2 men poured out of a room near the stairwell, forming up around him in a protective shield.

Back in the apartment, Rei stepped out of the shower, still wet, just in time to see Shinji disappear out the door.

_What manner of emergency is this? Perhaps I should return to NERV._

She quickly dried herself off and dressed, checking her phone. There were no missed calls.

_Odd. It is not an Angel then, if they do not summon me as well. I could return to my home and see what it is the MAGI have to say, or I could go to NERV and attempt to find out first hand. _

She stood there in the doorway staring at the floor, puzzled. _But..._ w_hy did he take my shoes?_

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji stared at the gray wall of the Entry Plug, going over the hurried briefing he had received before loading up into the massive plane that was carrying the Evangelion towards the out of control robot. This should be easy. It's not like the thing was an Angel or anything. Just a giant robot that some company had built to try to replace the Evangelions. To replace him.

He wasn't quite sure how he felt about that. He found himself conflicted and unsure, and so he tried to focus on the battle plan. It seemed simple enough.

Originally, Miss Misato had wanted to board the robot and try to use the manual override system. Unfortunately, the internal temperatures and radiation were far past anything a person could safely be exposed to with any of the current protection suits available. So his job was simplified to just smashing the thing without cracking open the main body like some noxious egg, and drag it to a safe location, where they would do whatever it was they had planned to clean up the radioactive mess. Since that part didn't concern him, they hadn't told him what they had planned. He didn't mind, though, as he knew he probably wouldn't understand it anyway. He was just glad that they were able to tell him that the reactor wasn't going to explode like a bomb. Wasn't that how they always showed these things in movies and stuff?

Dr. Akagi had just thrown her hands up in the air and complained about the lack of proper education in today's youth when he had asked about that. _It's not my fault that I'm not a nuclear engineer. I'm still in school! They don't teach that stuff there. And when would I have the time outside of school or NERV to learn these things?_

So, the plan was for him to be air-dropped out of the massive carrier plane, and break the robot's legs, and drag it as close to the drop-off site as he could in five minutes. Right now, a second plane, a regular cargo jet was landing at the main site to deliver a power cable and adapter assembly. They would link up with him after his internal power was drained, to allow him to finish moving the robot.

Then they would all go home. Misato promised a party, but he had his doubts about that. She normally used parties as an excuse to invite a bunch of people over, all get drunk and make a mess of the apartment. Which then he had to clean up the next day.

Shinji did not parties. Of course, he disliked being around large groups of people in non-party type environments as well, but he really didn't like parties.

White light replaced the red standby lights as the techs on the plane activated Unit-01. The kaleidoscope of color and sensation of synchronization was second hat to him now, and as he rolled his head around in a circle to stretch his neck, he felt the resistance of the travel locks against the Evangelion's head, and heard the protests of strained metal.

Lt. Aoba's voice filled his ears. "We're releasing you now, Shinji. Good Luck!" And with that, he was free.

Shinji reveled in the sensation of free-fall. Despite the warmth of the LCL, he could feel the cool rush of air over his skin, under the plug suit. It was all over in a moment, as he impacted with the ground, rolling across the terrain and coming into a crouch facing the oncoming robot, which marched onwards, oblivious of the new obstacle in it's path.

Mindful of the counter ticking down the five minutes of independent power that he had, he charged straight for the robot, eating up the meager distance (for the towering Evangelion) quickly, he dove to hit the gangly legs, arms wrapping around empty air as the robot deftly side-stepped to avoid it's attacker.

"What?" he shouted in adrenaline fueled excitement and confusion, as he tumbled to a stop, only to feel a searing pain across his back as the robot opened fire on him. Shouting incoherently in pain and surprise, he twisted around, sending Unit-01 scrambling on all fours to catch another blast, this one to the face.

Hissing in anger now, but otherwise ignoring the feeling, he slammed into his foe, making contact this time, smashing it to the ground. Jet Alone wasn't finished yet, wrapping it's surprisingly flexible arms around the Evangelion in a grotesque parody of a hug, trying to squeeze the life out of it.

Misato, standing on one of the tall observation platforms with Ritsuko and the Jet Alone chairman, wheeled to the ashen faced man.

"What the hell is that? It's trying to hug him to death!"

He only nodded in response, never taking his eyes off the titanic struggle taking place before them, as Unit-01 pushed back with one hand and landed devastating punches with the other. Even from this distance, the 'face' of Jet Alone was visibly dented and misshapen, taking on a semblance of a hideous grinning face.

He swallowed before speaking. "I wonder if it will use the self defense electric field."

Ritsuko, who had been chain smoking ever since the Sub-Commander had green lighted Misato's insane plan, dropped her spent cigarette and put a new one in it's place. "It's what?"

"Jet Alone's self defense against grappling targets is to electrify it's hull. If it's grappling with him now, it should be activating it." He shrugged. "Maybe there's something wrong with that too, in addition to the controls and the reactor safeties."

Struggling with the robot, Shinji could feel the warmth of the target, and with a thought he flipped to infrared visuals, and he was rewarded with a brightly glowing orb in the center of his enemy. _The reactor. This thing is definitely getting hotter!_

Just then, he threw his head back and screamed in pain as he was electrocuted, as thousands of amps poured into him from the robot's metal hide. Changing his target from the demented thing's face to one of the shoulder sockets, he smashed a smoking fist through the armor.

Misato stared in open horror as the bestial howl echoed across the plain. She was only dimly aware of the panicked screams of the other observers, who now were fleeing as fast as they could from the battle. Ritsuko, forgotten cigarette in hand, whispered something under her breath as she too stared out towards the Evangelion and Jet Alone. The Chairman, knuckles white as he held onto the railing as if it were a life line keeping him tethered to sanity, looked to the women.

"Did...did it just... open it's mouth and scream? WHAT IS THAT THING?"

Coming back to her senses, Ritsuko took a long drag on her cigarette before pitching it over the side. "That's a trade secret."

Misato jumped and punched the air. "YES! Haha, lookit that!"

She pointed to Unit-01, which was holding a still sparking arm over it's head, cables and hydraulics trailing out from where it had wrenched it from Jet Alone. Standing up now, it used the dismembered arm as a club, it rained down blows once more upon the Jet Alone, which had it's remaining arm raised over it, vainly attempting to shield itself from the awesome punishment it was receiving. Bits and pieces of metal went flying all over the place, becoming deadly shrapnel as Unit-01's club shed it's components.

Throwing aside the ruined arm, which slammed into the unused firing range with a thunderous impact, the Evangelion reached down with both arms, grabbing one of the thing's legs. Bracing a leg against Jet Alone's 'crotch', Shinji ripped the leg off with a growl that rumbled and echoed in the hot, heavy air.

Tossing aside the leg, he grabbed the other, and began to spin, dragging Jet Alone at first, then as he picked up speed, swinging it around in the air.

If there had been any hope of getting the control rods back into the reactor, that hope was dashed as it was clear to all that they had been broken off long ago, leaving only stubby protrusions on the robot's back.

Jet Alone wasn't done just yet, however, despite the massive amounts of damage it had taken. Reaching out with it's reaming arm, even though it was moving with none of the fluidity it originally had, it tried to grasp Unit-01. The mighty Evangelion was having none of it, and released it's grip on the leg, sending the robot flying after it's lost arm.

Charging after it's foe, Shinji leapt atop the fallen robot, smashing down onto it, feet slamming through it's back and out it's front. Great amounts of super heated steam billowed up, cloaking the Evangelion from view as it roared in victory. It came walking out of the cloud, each thudding step growing slower and slower, until it came to a halt half-way to the presentation building.

Kneeling down, the light faded from Unit-01's eyes, and all sounds ceased on the battlefield.

Misato turned back and forth, trying to build a good memory of the sheer devastation visited here by the shy, introverted boy in her care and command. Great grooves lay gouged in the earth, and there were pieces of Jet Alone Prime scattered far and wide. On the vast tarmac, where there had been numerous planes and helicopters that belonged to the myriad guests and attendees of the public demonstration, there was now only burning, broken shells, along with scattered remnants of what no longer looked like a giant robot's leg.

Alone, in the center of this vista of destruction, knelt the Evangelion Unit-01, like a faithful knight awaiting the order to go forth once more and bring doom to the enemies of it's king. Smoke still curled up from it in spots, and the armor in some places was cracked and warped. The horn had been snapped in half, where the other piece lay, Misato had no idea. That great mouth hung open, boulder like teeth of metal and actual tooth dripping with spit.

Misato turned to Ritsuko. "You think anyone got any of that on camera?"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Gendo Ikari sat in the large room afforded to him as his accommodations for the duration of his stay at NERV-Nevada. The tour of the facilities had gone well, and at any time now he should be receiving notification from Fuyutsuki that the Jet Alone Prime robot had suffered some tragic accident, and had gone rogue, only to suffer a fatal malfunction just before entering Toyota.

It would not do for him to be seen on the spy camera that undoubtably were hidden all over the room, so he busied himself with reading a book he had brought along for exactly this purpose. It was a hardbound book, with no dust jacket, and no title or author written on the binding. No title or author appeared on the pages of the book either, nor was any page numbered. The actual story of the book was intermixed amongst random pages of poetry, passages from other stories, other books, all put together with no overlying pattern. If anyone was trying to figure out what he was reading, well, they would be occupied for quite some time.

It was Gendo's most favorite book in all the world. The story it told was one he knew by heart, being an old story, but not one native to Japan.

His phone rang.

"Yes?"

"Commander Ikari, you have an incoming transmission from NERV-Central, Tokyo-3. Do you wish to take this call?"

Cradling the book in one hand, he straightened up in his chair. "Yes."

"Opening the line."

**"This is an automated message. Commander Ikari, please contact NERV Central, sub-location Central Dogma on a secure line. This is a Gamma Level message."**

Frowning, he marked his spot in the book and set it down on the table. This was not how this was supposed to go. There should be no reason why he needed to contact Fuyutsuki on a secured line about the Jet Alone issue. The matter was not a security issue.

It was a trivial issue for him to gain access to one of the red phones in the secure communications hub of NERV-Nevada. Swiping his NERV ID card, he was rewarded with a dial tone. Punching in the number for his Sub-Commander's office, he waited.

**"Please state your name."**

"Gendo Ikari."

**"Name and voice patterns recognized. Hello, Commander Ikari. Please state your Phase I crypto key."**

"Swansong"

**"The number is 9."**

"4"

**"Please state your Phase II password."**

"Genesis."

**"Connecting your call."**

"Gendo, there was an issue with the Jet Alone demonstration today."

"What issue? How does this matter to us?" Even though no one was supposed to be able to listen in on this, or record it, the part had to be played. To Commander Ikari of NERV, Jet Alone was a minor issue, almost beneath his notice. If something happened to it, it was of no consequence to him.

"The robot went rogue, and suffered some breakdown in the cooling and emergency shutdown systems. It started to make it's way towards the city of Toyota."

"Rogue AI? Sounds like a bad movie plot. Who did we have attend the demonstration? Dr. Akagi and Captain Katsuragi, yes? Were they injured during this... escapade?"

He heard his elderly mentor sigh on the other end. "No, they were not hurt."

"Then why contact me about this at all? This certainly didn't require a secure line."

"Well, Captain Katsuragi deployed Unit-01 in order to stop the robot before it could reach Toyota, where the reactor meltdown could have caused horrific amounts of causalities."

Gendo felt a ball of ice form in his stomach. Forcing his voice to remain calm and level, he only briefly paused before speaking again. "I see. Did Unit-01 sustain any major damage while dealing with this... rogue robot?"

He could swear that there was a breath of relief coming from the speaker. "No, only some minor damage. Decontamination should be complete in a few hours, and I'm told that complete repairs to the armor casings will be done before the day is out."

"The Third Child was undergoing sleep deprivation tests prior to this. Did these tests negatively affect the pilot's performance in dealing with this threat?"

"No. If anything, he threw himself into battle with little restraint. Of course, it might be that it was easier for him, as this was just a robot. After the Angels, I doubt that a simple robot could summon up any fear in him."

"Then everything is well. I am scheduled to depart here in the morning. I will speak with you then, if there is nothing else."

There was a pause, a slight hesitation on Kozo's part. Gendo wondered what he was hiding. "Well, there is something else. Shin- ahem. The Third Child, well, he went berserk again."

"Really."

"Yes. Like with the Third Angel."

"I see. Have all precautions been taken?"

"Initial scans show no signs of mental contamination. Internal log records show his highest synchronization score at fifty-seven percent. Section 2 has obtained all video documentation of the fight, outside of satellite data. However, it seems some stills of Unit-01 were released to the press. Section 2 is investigating, but the pictures are not high quality."

"Very well. I leave it in your hands. I will see you when I return."

"Of course."

Hanging up the phone, Gendo's eye twitched as he resisted the urge to take the phone and smash it into oblivion. He would see Kozo once he was back in Tokyo-3, yes, he would see him and if he didn't have a damned good excuse for this mess he would he him nailed up on the giant cross sitting in Terminal Dogma.


	16. Chapter 16

Shinji did not want to open his eyes for several reasons. The first was because he could feel someone pressed up against his side. Someone who was without any doubt female. As there had been several women over for Misato's party last night, several of them bridge techs that he hadn't really met before, only spoken to over the radio, he wasn't entirely sure who might be latched on to him. The second reason was that he currently had a splitting headache in addition to the fact that his entire body felt sore, and the light pouring through his closed eyelids was more than enough to make him wish that he was still asleep. But, most of all, was that when ever he shifted, no matter how slightly, he could hear an odd tinkling sound coming from somewhere. He also noted, in a detached way very unlike his normal self, that he wasn't wearing a shirt.

It was all very disconcerting.

But, he reasoned, that there would be time to panic about this later. Besides, he really couldn't remember anything about the party last night. He couldn't even remember going to bed.

He hoped very desperately that he was in his own bed.

Whoever was currently latched onto him let go for a moment, and he gratefully rolled over, pressing his head into a pillow, trying to block out the light. The fact that it felt like his pillow relieved some of his dread, but this comfort was quickly whisked away when he felt the mysterious woman burrow into his side and heard muffled sounds that sounded almost like speech. Unfortunately, he was in no shape to try to figure out who it was, or what they might have said. So, he decided that the only thing to do was the thing he had first wanted to do upon waking.

He went back to sleep.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato looked around the apartment and sighed in self satisfaction. Everything seemed to be... looked at her watch.

_Shinji should be getting home soon. Hopefully he invited some of his friends like I suggested. He doesn't hang out with them enough. He's a bona fide hero, for crying out loud. Forget the Angels, he publicly opened a can of ass-kicking on that stupid NHIS robot. Our PR department did an outstanding job of releasing that story to the public. He deserves a chance to bask in the adoration of his fans._

She smiled smugly, arms crossed. Even if he didn't invite anyone, she had told Rei that they were having a party and that she was invited. Rei had initially questioned the value of it, but had soon given into Misato's arguments. While Misato was still uncertain if this was out of a genuine interest in attending or because it seemed like an order, she decided that she didn't really care.

Besides, there needed to be at least **one** person Shinji's age here tonight. She had invited the normal bridge staff, including the second shift techs, in addition to submitting formal invitations to the Sub-Commander and Commander. Those were only out of politeness, and she really didn't think that either would attend. While she had no real interest or desire to party with her superiors, it would be some sort of acknowledgment that Shinji was doing his father proud if the man showed up.

Bizarrely enough, upon his return from NERV-Nevada, the Commander hadn't even commented on the incident publicly at all, unless you took the fact that he obviously gave a green light on the PR group's spin for public dissemination. Even the Sub-Commander had clammed up on the subject, and **he** was the one who had given her the go ahead for the whole thing in the first place.

It was all very odd, but for tonight she wasn't going to worry about. She had spent a week and a half planning for this night, forcing herself to burn through all the paperwork backed up on her desk to allow her a complete weekend to recover, and getting Ritsuko to ensure the schedules gave the two pilots the weekend off as well, barring unforeseen incidents.

In other words, Misato wanted this party to be epic, and if she had to go and collect his friends from their homes to ensure it, then that was what she was going to do.

There was going to be catered food, all the manner of drinks, games, karaoke, and drinks.

Shinji was going to have a good time even if it killed him.

She smiled as the door opened and the sound of conversation filled the air. _So he did ask some people. Good for him._

"Miss Misato? I'm home!" Shinji's voice cut through the gaggle, sounding oddly strained.

"Welcome home Shinji!" she cheerfully called back. "Do I hear guests?"

The group of teenagers appeared in the living room, trailing after Shinji. She noted the presence of the two troublemakers from before with a raised eyebrow, both of them cringed slightly. Rei was present, she was pleased to see, as well as another girl their age she didn't recognize, and a much younger girl, who amusingly enough was latched onto Shinji's leg, much to his obvious discomfort.

Misato went instantly into insulin shock when the girl tried to hide behind Shinji when she knelt down to get a better look at the short brown haired girl. There was a faint, but noticeable resemblance to the larger of Shinji's friends, the one who had had the temerity to punch Shinji.

"Aww, and just who is this?" she cooed at the girl, holding her hand out to the shy girl, who didn't answer.

Toji spoke up for his sister, albeit hesitantly addressing the woman who both was simultaneously attractive and terrifying in equal parts. "Er, this is my sister, Mari. She's not normally this shy." He looked down at his sister, not sure just what she was playing at. "Go on Mari, say hi to Shinji's guardian."

Mari looked out at Misato with huge, shining eyes. The mesmerizing effect they had on the purple haired woman was ruined when the small girl finally spoke. "Are you Mister Shinji's mommy?" she asked, one hand still clutching Shinji's pant leg, the other held to her face with a finger in her mouth.

Misato's smile instantly became a rictus grin as the assembled teens (sans Rei, who didn't really understand their reaction to this straightforward means of gathering pertinent information) stiffened, and in the case of Toji, smacking his face with the palm of his hand.

Mari, however, was not done. "Cause you're too pretty and young to be his mommy. Are you his big sister?" The huge, sparkling doe like eyes did not blink.

The effect was instantaneous. Misato squealed in joy and love, reaching past her ward's leg and plucked Mari from him like a ripe apple from a tree, hugging her close. "Oh, that's exactly right! I'm just like his big sister. Oh, you obviously got all the brains and looks in your family, didn't you?"

One can only assume that Toji's face fell even further upon hearing this devastating blow to both his intelligence and what he considered to be his rugged good looks, but with a hand clapped over the majority of his facial features, the others couldn't tell.

Mari nodded as she too squealed as Misato spun around in a circle, her arms slung around Misato's neck. "Yup! Toji's a big doo-doo head. "

Misato nodded back to the girl as she set her down on the ground. "You know, that's exactly what I thought when I first met him."

"He got in trou~ble!" she said in her sing-song voice, sticking her tongue out at her older brother, now groaning and wishing that he was someplace else. "I was sooooo~ mad when I found out what he di~d. But Mister Shinji made it all better."

Shinji, quickly turning beet red, started stammering. "Y-you don't really need to call me that, Mari."

"Nuh uh! You pilot the robot and save us all the time! You even fight other giant robots on the television!"

"Well, uh..."

"She is correct, Ikari, you do indeed pilot the Evangelion and have successfully prevented the Extinction of Mankind on three separate occasions, as well as subduing a malfunctioning robot, which was published on a global level over the television information distribution networks." Rei commented, her voice never changing from her normal volume or intonation. Everyone (with the exception of Mari, who wasn't sure what to think of the girl besides the fact that she had pretty hair and strange eyes) stared at her in shock. Rei looked at them questioningly. "This was considered humorous, yes? A older person agreeing with the logic and argument of a child when extolling the virtues of another person is generally considered humorous when their argument and logic do not necessarily lead one to the conclusion that they are reaching, yes?" Looking at them and seeing that no answer was forthcoming, she nodded. "Excuse me, I need to use the restroom." She walked down the hall, keeping an ear open for the conversation she was sure would follow.

Kensuke found his voice first. "Did Rei just make a joke? Rei Ayanami?" The group quickly descended into hushed conversation about what exactly just happened, with Misato staring down the hallway, hands on her hips, with a thoughtful, but somewhat suspicious expression.

_Aha. It is as I suspected, it was indeed humorous. However, their reactions were not consistent with previously observed outcomes towards jokes. It is unfortunate that I do not see the intrinsic humor in agreeing with such statements, but I must admit that I found their reactions to be amusing. I temporarily removed their ability to verbally express themselves. This merits further research._

Rei looked at herself in the bathroom's mirror, studying her reflection from different angles. _Why is it that he permits the young girl to physically attach herself to him, when it obviously causes him unease and distress? Why does he shy away from physical contact with me?_ She chewed on her lower lip as she tilted her head to one side, trying to stare into the reflection of her pupils. _Conscious physical contact, at any rate. When he is asleep, he has no issues with it. Is this the same for all people? Is the need to be together with someone so deeply rooted in the psyche that we reach out for others in our sleep on instinct alone? Would anyone be sufficient to fulfill this need? Do I reach out in my sleep for someone else? I did not test this possibility during my short stay here __previously._

Rinsing her hands under the faucet in order to foil any attempts of people listening to see if she was indeed using the restroom, she filled her cupped hands with the cool water and dipped her face into it.

_If such a need is indeed such a deep seated desire, then why do people constantly distance themselves from other when awake?_

Having stalled enough, she quickly dried her face and hands, and rejoined the group in the living room, now with the addition of an older and a younger girl. The younger new addition was about the same age as Mari, and both girls were already sitting in front of the television chatting. The older, bearing a striking resemblance to the Class Representative, was speaking to Captain Katsuragi.

"-so I hope it's not a bother, Captain."

Misato beamed at her. "Not at all Kodama! And please, call me Misato. I've been trying to break Shinji of his habit of calling me Miss but it's like pulling teeth. Anyways, the more the merrier! The real party won't start until later, but we can go chat in the kitchen and let the kids goof off in here."

Misato shot a glance at Rei as they went into the kitchen, but Rei missed it as she focused in on her fellow students, sitting around the coffee table.

"-realize that you lived with your superior officer as her ward, Shinji." Hikari said, patting Pen-Pen's head. "But Misato said that your father is the commander of NERV? Why don't you live with him?" She looked up as Pen-pen left her to crawl into Rei's lap as she silently sat down.

Shinji looked out the windows of the room, before shifting his gaze to the table. "It's... complicated."

Toji and Kensuke were sitting extremely still on the couch, afraid to move. _Shinji's father is the Commander of NERV? The man who ruled Tokyo-3?_ Kensuke was shocked that he had never put the peices together before. They both had the same name after all. Toji wasn't sure how the man his father and grandfather described as an aloof tyrant could have the timid and shy Shinji for a son.

Rei, stroking Pen-Pen absent mindedly, spoke up. "Commander Ikari lives by himself inside the Geo-Front. His apartment is smaller than Captain Katsuragi's, and he is rarely there. Even though I am legally his ward, when I also resided in the Geo-Front, I also resided at a different address."

Shinji seemed to shrink into himself at her matter of fact statement, while Toji, Kensuke and Hikari gaped at her in shock. They had heavily suspected that she was the pilot of the second Evangelion, even though Shinji flat-out refused to discuss the matter with them, but to hear that she was the ward of Shinji's father, when Shinji had been sent away as a young boy, and was seemingly treated with disdain by him? There were no words that they could use to articulate their shock and confusion.

Mari and Nozomi, on the other hand, both squealed as only young girls can.

"You pilot at robot too?" Mari's jump to this conclusion wasn't based off any other information than she knew 'Mister' Shinji's father and had lived in the Geo-Front. It was a leap that could only be made in the mind of an over excited child, but as luck would have it, completely correct. "That's soo~ awesome!" Both girls tackle hugged the confused, blushing girl as Pen-Pen slipped out of her lap to retreat to a safer location.

"So you fight with Mister Shinji to protect us too?" Nozomi asked, picking up Mari's term of endearment for the boy who was trying to disappear through the floor through sheer mental power.

Rei hesitated, not sure what to say at this sudden outing of her pilot status. "I have only been sortied once, during the last battle with an Angel. Before that, I was too injured to fight, and I was kept here in Tokyo-3 on standby in the event of an Angel appearing while Ikari was combating the Jet Alone Prime."

Nozomi opened her mouth, but was cut off before she got started by her older sister. "Nozomi! You can't just latch onto people like that! Apologize to Rei!"

As the younger girl began to apologize, Kensuke decided to try to change the subject, bringing up the nature of the fight with the robot. He wasn't a fan of awkward silences, after all.

Kodama and Misato listened to the teenagers' conversation with half an ear as they sat in the kitchen. Misato smiled at the eldest Hokari sister, passing her a beer. "So tell me Kodama, what do you know about Shinji? Does your sister talk about him at all?"

Kodama nodded. "She mentions him from time to time. From what I hear, he's a quiet boy. Hangs out with them a bit, but not a whole lot."

Misato sighed. "He is a quiet boy." She waved a hand around in a vague sweeping gesture. "The whole reason I put this party together is to try and draw him out of that shell of his." She checked her watch. "In a little bit, a group of people from NERV will be getting here, and shortly after that, the food will arrive." She smiled impishly. "You might hear some things slip from us that shouldn't really be put out to the public, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't repeat anything that you hear tonight."

Kodama smiled and nodded in assent. "Not a problem, Misato. If that's the entry fee to be at a party with the people who regularly save the world, I think it's a small price. It's not every day that you meet people who do what they do, even if they are just kids."

Misato sighed. "It can be hard to remember that sometimes. Shinji's not even sixteen, and Rei's a few months younger than him, and yet... they are soldiers. Highly specific soldiers, but soldiers regardless."

"I had wondered about that. I mean, not a lot of people know who the pilots are, at least not at my school. I was surprised when Hikari let it slip that a boy in her class was the pilot of NERV's secret weapons system. Our father told her in no uncertain terms to never speak of it again, but then, he works for NERV, like most people here. I think that's why it hasn't made it's way into the general knowledge yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time."

Misato nodded in agreement, throwing her drained can deftly into the trash bin. "Shinji had to stay in the Evangelion even after beating the Jet Alone until we recovered him to the Geo-Front. We can't risk his identity being exposed like that."

Their ruminations were interrupted by the doorbell. Shouts were heard from the living room as both Mari and Nozomi ran (Mari moved with more of an odd skipping gait that was much slower than Nozomi's mad dash) to answer the door.

As it turned out, most of the bridge crew had arrived at the same time. Greetings were extended and introductions made, and the party started to gather steam. By the time that the majority of the food had been eaten, most of the adults were running a good buzz, and good natured drunken revelry was in full swing.

Which was, of course, when the Sub-Commander showed up.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"Are you going to attend the party?"

Gendo didn't look up from the report he was reading, but then again, he never did. "No. I seriously doubt that my presence would be anything other than a source of discomfort for all. Besides, I need to finish my report for the meeting with the old men tomorrow." He turned a page.

Kozo shook his head. "You do realize that it's to celebrate your son's victory over the NHIS robot, yes? It would be good for him to see that you care." _It would be good for you, as well._

"The fact that the Third Child is around and healthy enough to enjoy a party over his success his hardly a reason to celebrate the fact that he even fought the Jet Alone." If anything, his voice was colder than normal. "There was no need for him to have been sortied. We had the whole thing under control from the moment the public demonstration began."

"Captain Katsuragi didn't know that. Her request was not unreasonable, and neither was her reasoning or battle plan."

"Captain Katsuragi does not know a lot of things, and for good reason. You should have denied the request. There was no need to expose the Third Child to the Jet Alone."

Kozo smiled smugly at his one time student, who ignored him. _Are you more upset that your son could have been harmed by the robot more than he was, or because you did not see this one coming, and did not have a plan for it? _"I think that you protest too much, Gendo. You can't tell me that you aren't proud of him."

Carefully and deliberately, Gendo lowered the papers to his desk and looked at the graying sub-commander. "Of course I am proud of him. I am very proud of him, but I will not be goaded by you or anyone else into throwing away everything that I have worked to build just because of this fact. In a more perfect world, there would be no need for all of this. But this world is far from perfect. This world is run by men who wish to be gods, and who will stop at nothing to achieve this. I will stop at nothing to stop them."

"You still try to achieve your own selfish wants at the same time. Can't you at least make an appearance? What harm will it really do?"

"It would do enough." He picked the report back up, but even though he was looking at it, he wasn't reading it. "If you insist, you may attend."

"Oh? Does this mean that you no longer wish to crucify me?" Kozo's voice was arch, sarcasm dripping from each word like poison from a sharpened blade.

"You still are still useful to me ambulatory. Be glad of this fact."

With a grin, the elderly professor pushed himself to his feet. "I'll let you know how the party was."

"Don't be foolish."

Gendo threw the paper down on the desk with disgust seconds after the door closed. The Captain's reasoning behind deploying Unit-01 could not be faulted, and it was exactly the type of thing one should expect from her. Unfortunately, he hadn't thought about that possibility. Somehow it had slipped his mind.

That worried him.

While he had been less than delighted to hear the details of the fight upon his arrival, he had been greatly relieved to hear that his son's injuries amounted to a sunburn on his face and across his shoulders and back. While Unit-01 had been exposed to a non-negligible amount of radiation as the battle quickly became one sided as his son descended into the battle rage, the Entry Plug had prevented him from exposure, and Unit-01 itself had been decontaminated and the LCL-Coolant mixture in the cage would prevent any biological issues from arising.

Still, this never should have happened. Planned for or not, Kozo should never have given the go-ahead for Unit-01 to be deployed. Now that the rest of the world had seen the Evangelion's capability of dealing with a supposedly superior terrestrial foe in addition to the Angelic threat, they would start to wonder what the man who controlled them would do once the Angels stopped showing up.

Some were undoubtably already making plans on how to defeat or circumvent this super-weapon. It helped that they didn't know about NERV's work on the S2 engines, and would be operating on the idea that they had to have an external power source, or be limited to a five minutes of power.

While it would not matter in the long run, he would have to take this into account. He would not stand for some nervous, trigger happy two-bit nation or official ruining years of dedicated work.

Gendo glanced at the dark monitor screen on his desk, debating whether or not to watch the party. He shook his head. Perhaps later, he mused. He still had work to do.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei watched the reveling crowd with interest, but some apprehension. _This social event is a veritable goldmine of information. _She had taken considerable notes on various interpersonal relationships and behaviors from the assembled crowd, which had somehow grown exponentially in size as more and more people showed up and began to participate. The entire building, which almost entirely housed NERV personnel, joined in, with people moving from apartment to apartment and floor to floor.

One enterprising individual had started a bonfire down in the parking lot. What they had started it with or what was being used to keep it going, she didn't know but it smelled like wood smoke with only a little bit of plastics mixed in.

The smell from when they started torching automobiles, well it was something else entirely.

When the civilian police had shown up, Section 2 had waved them away.

From out of the crowd, Hikari appeared with a glass of punch for blue haired girl, who had been sitting out on the balcony.

"Hi Rei!" Hikari giggled oddly. Rei had noted that the normally reserved girl had become almost as rambunctious as her older sister. (Nozomi and Mari had fallen asleep and had been taken by a very sober Section 2 agent to one of their stations for safekeeping) "Aww... you look so lonely out here."

Rei blinked, but accepted the offered cup of punch, taking a sip. "I am not lonely, Class Representative. I am merely observing."

Hikari giggled again. "Aww, call me Hikari, Rei! We're friends!" Hikari threw back her own cup of punch. "Why are you hanging out here all by yourself? C'mon inside, we managed to snag the karaoke machine. Toji's going to make Shinji do a song."

_It would be interesting to see this. He disappeared into his room some time ago. He also apparently does not enjoy crowds. _She sipped again from the punch, not noticing the warmth that spread through her, but did look at the cup. _This drink seems to be tastier now than it did before. I wonder if this is in response to expected proximity to Ikari again. _Rei looked over the balcony as someone tossed a can of something flammable into the fire, which shot up, to the cheers of the crowd surrounding it. _I do not enjoy crowds either... but... maybe it will be alright._

She hesitantly allowed the exuberant girl to pull her back inside.

Inside Shinji's room, a somewhat similar conversation was taking place.

"Dude... you are being a total buzz kill." Toji handed his friend a cup of punch. "But I get it. You're not into crowds and stuff. This whole thing's kinda escalated out of control. I mean, someone set a car on fire down there. But Kensuke managed to call next on the karaoke machine after some old guy. Let's go have some fun with it at least."

Shinji swished the red liquid around in the cup before taking a drink. He blinked as the fruity concoction overwhelmed his sense of taste. "I don't know... "

"C'mon, Hikari's even going to get Rei to come in and sing one too." He smiled as Shinji looked up. He took a sip from his own drink. "I thought that would get your attention." He jerked his head towards the door. "Let's go, eh?"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Gendo yawned, and then glanced at the clock on the computer and sighed. Kozo had come back and left again, maybe an hour earlier. He had said something about the party, but he hadn't really listened. Kozo had been slurring his words and stumbling around.

Taking a sip of his coffee that had long ago gone cold, he turned on the camera feed.

He did not spit his coffee out in shock at what he saw, because that would imply that even the sheer suprise of unexpectedly seeing his son staggering around the apartment without a shirt and wearing a collar with a bell around his neck, arm in arm with the Suzahara boy (also shirtless) would cause him to respond with an involuntary reflexive action.

Instead, he took another sip of his coffee and turned the monitor off. There were some things that he really did not care to know about. He turned back to the paperwork on his desk.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Hikari yawned, and then clutched her head. "Ughh..." She swallowed, trying to get the taste out of her mouth. It was then that she noticed where she had been sleeping. It was on the couch in the living room. It was also on top of Toji. Her eyes went wide as she fell sideways off the couch onto a very surprised and now awake Kensuke.

"What was that for?" he grumbled, one hand feeling for his glasses.

Hikari, turning red, quickly stood up. "Oh, sorry... um..." her voice died as she looked around the room.

The place was a wreck, debris from the party strewn all over. She saw her sister sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee and chatting with that long haired guy that Shinji said was the one he went shooting with. Some other people were asleep on the floor in random spots. She could barely remember the name of the mousy looking tech who was moaning and clutching her head. Ignoring the pounding in her head, she quickly began counting people. There were two very important people missing.

Just before she could open her mouth to call for her younger sister, both Mari and Nozomi came tearing into the apartment from outside, laughing at a volume all too loud for Hikari, but she ignored that as she breathed a sigh of relief.

She weaved her way to the table and flopped down in an available chair. Her sister smiled at her. "Good morning sleepyhead. You seemed to have some fun last night."

Hikari narrowed her eyes at Kodama's slightly smug tone. "Why does my head hurt and everything seem to be three times loud? And why are **you** so smug?"

Aoba laughed as he stood up and went to get her a cup of coffee. Kodama smiled again at her younger sister. "Me? Smug? Whatever do you mean?"

Hikari glared at her sister. "What. Did. You. Do."

Nozomi looked up from the couch, where she and Mari were poking Toji, who was halfheartedly trying to defend himself with a pillow.

"Oooo Kodama~ you're gonna be in trouble~" she sang, with Mari quickly joining in. "Hikari's mad at yooo~uuuu."

Kodama sighed and threw her hands up in mock surrender. "There might have been a smidge of alcohol in the punch bowel last night." she said, her tone anything but apologetic or afraid. "It didn't get put in there until after those two went to sleep, so stop frowning at me." She nodded at the young girls, who were now peering over the side of the balcony and looking down in the parking lot.

Misato and Ritsuko came in from down the hall talking to each other, seemingly none the worse for wear. Hikari stared in disbelief when she saw that Shinji's guardian and commanding officer was drinking a beer.

_It's in the morning! _She shot a look at the clock. _It's not even nine in the morning! HOW can she be drinking that now? She was drinking all last night, even before everyone showed up. _She suddenly recalled Shinji's offhand comments to Toji and Kensuke about his guardian's drinking habits. She had always put them off as exaggerations, but it seemed that it was no exaggeration. _This is really too much to take. _She moaned and buried her head under her arms, trying to recall if she had done anything more embarrassing than sleep on top of Toji during what no doubt was a prolonged bout of insanity and debauchery.

Toji, for his part, blissfully unaware that he had spent a few hours sandwiched between a couch and Hikari, stood and stretched.

"Hey, where's my shirt?" he asked, confused. Hikari's eyes shot open as she lifted her head up to stare at him as he turned around looking for his missing shirt.

Kodama smiled as she watched a goofy grin surface on her sister's face as she watched the boy she secretly crushed on. Kodama leaned in so that she was right next to Hikari's ear. "You're wearing his shirt."

Hikari looked down, shrieked, and dashed off towards the bathroom.

Aoba shook his head. "I have a hard time seeing her as the authoritarian terror you were describing earlier, Kodama."

Misato and Ritsuko both surveyed the apartment, watching as everyone who had been sleeping in various states of waking up, summoned from slumber by Hikari's outburst.

Ritsuko shook her head. "This place is a mess. I hope you're not planning on asking me to help clean this place up, cause I've got work to do down in Central."

Misato only grinned and shook her head. "Nope! I've got that all planned out too. In a little bit, cleaners will be arriving to take care of it all!" She crumpled up the empty can in her hand and tossed it on the floor. "Whooo! That was a fun party. We should have one again when this is all over." She beamed as she looked around the room, but her smile faded as she didn't find who she was looking for. "Has anyone seen Shinji? He's usually an early riser."

Kodama giggled. "I think that he might have had a little too much punch last night Misato, if you know what I mean. He was putting it away like a trooper there for a little bit."

Hikari, appearing again, pointed at Misato, a betrayed expression on her face. "You **knew**?" While she had known that some adults were irresponsible (like her older sister) it came as a bad shock that someone in Misato's position of responsibility would condone such behavior, her distressing drinking habit aside. _Adults aren't supposed to act like this! No wonder Shinji doesn't really care about his grades that much; his guardian is a delinquent! She's a horrible role model!_

Misato shrugged nonchalantly. "It's not like there was a lot of alcohol in the punch. It was a party, anyway. I think that you're all mature enough to handle a little bit." She leered at the girl. "You didn't do anything... improper did you?"

Hikari, blushing furiously now, snapped back without thinking. "Of course not!"

"Then you have nothing to complain about, then do you?" Misato winked. "Unless you're now wishing that you had known about it so you could have done something improper, and blamed me for it? Huh, are you?"

Hikari sputtered for a few seconds before regaining control of herself. "No! I would never! That's not right."

Their back and forth exchange was interrupted by a tinkling bell sound accompanied by Toji and Kensuke laughing hysterically, followed by the flash of Kensuke's camera. Everyone who hadn't cleared out of the apartment turned to look at a befuddled Shinji, similarly shirtless, leaning on the wall, a hand clasped to his head and squinting at them. As he shifted his weight from foot to foot, the bell around his neck sounded again.

"I feel like that robot punched me in the face. What's going on?"

Kensuke kept snapping pictures with his camera, as Toji collapsed on the floor, still laughing. Misato stared in open mouthed shock, with Ritsuko clasping both hands in front of her face, trying not to squeal in adoration. Nozomi and Mari had no compulsion to refrain from such a display, and did squeal in adoration. Aoba sighed in disbelief, with Kodama giggling like mad. She apparently was the only one who remembered that he had been wearing it for a good amount of time last night.

Shinji just looked at them with a confused expression on his face as Rei pushed past him and went into the kitchen to get something to drink.

"What?"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kensuke poked Shinji's shoulder, bringing him back to the land of the awake. Shinji lifted his head from the desk and yawned.

"Hey man, you really need to try and stay awake in class. Toji and I can't cover for you all the time." he sat down in the desk as it's owner shot the pair a dirty look as he gathered his books up to leave.

"Sorry... I've been trying to get all my missed homework done on top of the stuff the teachers give me now, so I haven't been getting a lot of sleep." Shinji looked around for their friend. "Say... where is Toji?"

Kensuke grinned. "You're really not very observant, are you? He and Hikari have been hanging out a lot more after school, if you know what I mean. They disappeared almost as soon as the bell rang."

Yawing again, Shinji shook his head to try and clear the cobwebs from his mind. "Does this have anything to do with her bringing him lunch now?"

"You don't really get it, do you?" Kensuke shook his head. "You got anything going on at NERV today, or are you free to hang out? The arcade's supposed to be getting a new flight sim in this week sometime."

Shinji shook his head. "No, I need to go into work for some tests." He yawned again, and started packing up his laptop into his bag. "Hey, Miss Misato asked me to see if you and Toji wanted to come along on a trip on Friday. She has to go somewhere to attend a meeting and she's bringing me along for some reason, but she said I could invite two people to come along for company. I guess she doesn't want me wandering around by myself."

"I'm up for anything where I can spend some time with that babe of a guardian of yours, but I don't think that Toji will be able to come along. I'll ask him later tonight, but I think him and Hikari have something planned for tomorrow." He paused, looking out the window. "Why only two?"

Shinji shrugged. "She said that we're going on a helicopter, and that's all the room there is."

"Sweet! What type of helicopter?"

"I don't know."

"Oh, man I'm definitely down for this." Kensuke looked around the classroom as they left. "Say, where's Ayanami been for the last few days? She hasn't been at school."

"Dr. Akagi's got her doing some tests this week. I haven't even seen her at work."

"Anything like the tests you were doing before?"

"I don't really know. I mean, they sometimes try to explain what they're doing to me but I don't understand it at all. But even so, I don't know if it's something I should be talking about."

The bespectacled boy chuckled. "True enough. You know, you should ask Rei if she wants to go."

"A-Ayanami? You think that she'd want to go?"

"Jeez, man, I'm sure that if you asked her she'd go. You two had fun at the party last week. I've got photographic proof of that, so you can't deny it."

"I-I think that was just the alcohol."

Kensuke shook his head as he stared at his friend. "Do you really think so? Seriously?"

Shinji sighed dejectedly. "N-no. Not really." _But I can't be sure. There's been too much weird stuff between her and me to be able to tell. And I can't tell him about any of it, it's too embarrassing!_

"Then just invite her man. Everyone in class can tell that she likes you. You're like the only person she's ever spoken too on her own. Or ate lunch with. Or even acted in any manner that approached normal for or towards." the boy said, counting off his points on his hand. _Are all Evangelion pilots crazy and weird like this? I wonder if it has something to do with the brain link ups, or if it's a prerequisite. Maybe they need to be... abnormal in order for the mental link-up to work at all. But who would design a weapon like that? Of course, _he thought, waving to his friend as Shinji went towards the train station to go to NERV, _who would design a weapon that inflicts the damage it takes on it's operator?_

Shinji continued to mull over Kensuke's advice as he traveled to NERV. _I just wish that I had a sure way of knowing what was going on between us. I'm pretty sure that it was her sleeping next to me that night... _he blushed, thinking about how it had felt to have someone pressed up against him under the covers. _It was... nice. Even if my head was killing me. _

Kensuke's camera had many, many pictures on it, and while some events remained hazy memories, there was no denying the images burned into digital memory. Somewhere along the way karaoke (with the Sub-Commander, no less!) had turned into shirtless karaoke, and then some sort of wrestling match between him and Toji had been documented, followed by a picture of Ayanami putting that cat's collar on him. He turned even redder and laughed quietly as he recalled the image in his mind.

"What's so funny, punk?" a harsh voice asked him, cutting through his mental rambling and the music of his SDAT.

.

Shinji looked up to see three boys, all older than him glaring at him from across the train. One of them looked like he had just been arguing with a girl their age. The largest of them stood up.

"I said, what's so funny, you punk?"

Shinji swallowed. "S-sorry... I was thinking to-"

"Thinking what? Thinking that we're funny?"

"I think he was laughing at us, Akio."

"Oh leave him alone."

Not taking his glaring eyes off of Shinji, Akio addressed the girl, growling at her. "Chou, shut up. Boys, I think we need to need to teach this punk some manners."

Shinji's eyes darted down the length of the train car, to the black suited man in sunglasses who was casually strolling towards them. "You r-really don't want to do this. Please, just forget about it."

Akio and his friends gaped at him. "Oh, I think that I do." His hand reached out and ripped the head phones and SDAT from Shinji, and before he could react, smashed it down on the floor, crushing it underfoot. "Funny now, little boy?"

"Ahem." Four sets of eyes turned to the man standing to one side, his arms crossed.

One of the other boys sneered at him. "What do you want, jackass?"

The man's answer was calm and controlled. "I want all of your wallets, your phones, everything of value, and then, I want you to sit down in your seats until we get to the next station."

"Are you high, man? Get bent."

Shinji, who had only stared at the ruined player and tape on the floor during the conversation, felt his eye twitch. He was only barely aware of the fact that his right fist had clenched into a fist, as he turned hate filled eyes on Akio.

He didn't notice the door to the train compartment open and three more Section 2 men file in on the other side of the boys. He didn't hear Akio tell the first man to get lost again, unless he wanted to pay the price. He didn't hear himself whisper his mantra under his breath. All he heard was the pounding thunder of his heartbeat in his ears.

"center the target and pull the switch"

He also didn't hear the uttered cries of his escort's surprise as he launched himself with a howl out of his seat into Akio, slamming his fist into the boy's temple as he grasped his arm with his left. Ignoring the sudden curses of the other two boys and the secret service agents as the black suited men rushed in, ignoring the frighted scream of the girl as he and Akio slammed into the seat next to her as he rained down blows on the unconscious boy.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"**CENTER THE TARGET AND PULL THE SWITCH! CENTER THE TARGET AND PULL THE SWITCH! CENT-**"

Gendo paused the playback. Kozo lifted an eyebrow as he chuckled softly as he stared at the stilled image of two Section 2 men restraining Shinji.

"I see that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, Gendo. At least he doesn't need to worry about getting bailed out of jail, eh?"

Gendo shook his head. "I think that this particular apple might have fallen close to the tree, but proceeded to roll down the hill a ways. I wouldn't have waited for him to break something of mine before attacking, but at least he's not flailing around helplessly."

"What of his little center the target phrase? Does he think that he's fighting inside the Evangelion?"

Gendo snorted in amusement. "That would be interesting, but no. I think it's more of a battle cry."

"Interesting choice in a battle cry. Doesn't exactly strike fear into the hearts of man."

"It could be worse. Besides, his enemies are not men; so it does not need to frighten them. It just needs to provide him focus; which this should do, as it's basically a chant of how to use the weapons system mock-up in the Entry Plug."

Kozo stared at the frozen image on the screen. "It's odd though. Why did he laugh at them? It didn't even look like he was paying any attention to them in the first place."

"He wasn't." Gendo shook his head. "He was probably daydreaming. They just took it the wrong way and thought that he was an easy target."

"Much to their loss. What was Section 2's take on the altercation?"

"They think he's oddly volatile. They told him afterwards to just let them handle things from now on."

"Huh." The Sub-Commander smirked as Gendo turned the monitor off and turned to another report. "Are you going to give him a new SDAT this time too?"

Gendo watched his second in command over the tops of his glasses before pushing them back up his nose. "I don't know what you're getting at."

"You might fool everyone else, but you're not fooling me."

"I might, but it will have to wait until after the arrival of Unit-02."

"Is it nearing that time already?"

"It is. Soon we will have all three Evangelions, ADAM and Lilith. Soon, I will hold all of the keys to Instrumentality."

"Once we have found the lance."

"Indeed."

"How much longer do you think it will be?"

Gendo shrugged as he stood up and moved to windows of his office, staring out at the lake and forest. "In all honesty, I don't know. The scrolls give a tentative time-line, but it's all open to interpretation and conjecture. The next Angel is supposed to come from the sea, but so far all the other ones have come from the sea as well, so that's no real help. It could arrive today, or months, or years."

"A pity that we can't summon them to our liking. But then, SEELE would probably try to circumvent us."

"True. If they are willing to commit mass genocide to become gods, I doubt that they would lose any sleep over stabbing us in the back again."

"Don't tell me that you're still upset over the Jet Alone issue? It's not like it was they managed to do us any real harm, besides leaking some information about the A.T. Field and battle information to NHIS, and er both know that it was only going to be a matter of time before that was leaked anyways."

Gendo did not turn from the window. "It is still an affront that they would dismiss us so casually like that. Their audacity is galling. But, soon it will come to an end."

Kozo nodded as he stood. "One way, or another."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji sighed for what seemed to be the five hundredth time since the helicopter flight began. Despite not really paying him any attention, having his nose shoved in a new camera manual, and the sigh being barely audible over the noise of the helicopter's engine, Kensuke glanced at him, and then the empty space next to him on the bench seat.

"Hey, it's just bad luck that Dr. Akagi wouldn't let her take today off. No big deal, man."

Misato looked up from the report that she had been reading to kill time as all her attempts to engage Shinji in conversation had proved pointless, and she really didn't care to hear about how awesome the helicopter they were riding in was from Kensuke. "She wouldn't have been able to leave anyways, guys. We have to have at least one pilot ready to be deployed at all times in Tokyo-3." She looked at Kensuke. "Why wasn't the Suzahara boy able to come along? I would have thought he would have jumped at the chance to skip school for a day."

"Him and Hikari are taking their younger sisters to the zoo today after school." Shinji responded for Kensuke, his voice neutral. He smiled weakly at the others. "It's OK, I was just thinking."

_Uh huh. **Right**. _"Aww, what were you thinking about? Rei?" Misato smiled at the boy, winking. Her hopes that the boy would have loosened up some after the party seemed to have been in vain. He seemed to be just as closed off as before, not opening up at home or elsewhere as far as she could tell. He had even gone so far as to avoid Rei a little, prompting the girl to ask Misato about him.

That in turn had prompted a flotilla of memories to come floating to the surface. The girl really liked him, in her own strange, quiet way. But in Misato's opinion, neither of the two would do anything on their own. It would be up to big sister Misato to make sure that they had a chance to connect, at least. Of course, the fact that it seemed like one was always being a lab rat for Ritsuko's latest batch of tests and had no time or energy to spare didn't help.

"N-no, it's nothing." While he stuttered, miraculously, he didn't blush. His little altercation yesterday on the train had sparked something, but whatever it was, he wasn't sure. All he knew was that he felt... different. He had apologized to the Section 2 men, even though they said it wasn't necessary, but... he wasn't sure if he had actually meant it this time. He certainly didn't feel any remorse over beating Akio senseless, that was for sure. It was different, though, from when he had attacked Toji and Kensuke at school. He had felt bad about it, later, and during the fight he hadn't taken any pleasure in it. That had just been... anger, anger and rage, free from any other emotion.

He felt a sneaking suspicion that he had felt a sliver of enjoyment when he felt his fists connect with the older boy.

Shinji wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not.

One of the crew members tapped Misato on the shoulder, holding up five fingers. She nodded, and turned to the boys, one reading his book and the other staring out the window again.

"OK! We're almost to our destination! If you'll look out the far windows, you should see it!"

Shinji had seen nothing but open ocean for the past hour and a half, so even his curiosity was aroused. He followed Kensuke over to the window, where he was making strangling sounds as he pressed his face up to the small circular window. Picking a window next to his, Shinji looked out over more ocean, and more ships than he had ever seen before in his life.

"We're going to a boat?" he asked, looking around at the assortment of warships, ranging in size from merely big to mind-staggeringly large.

"Ships, Shinji, they're called ships. But yes, we're going to a ship." Misato's voice was smug, but amused. "In fact, if you can find one with a large forty-two painted on it, that's the one we're going to."

Kensuke managed to calm down enough to spit out a coherent sentence. "Forty-two? Why does that sound familiar?" He craned his neck, trying to read the numbers painted on the sides of the ships as their helicopter maneuvered past other helicopters that were circling the massive fleet, when his eyes widened. "The 'Over the Rainbow'! We're going to the 'Over the Rainbow'?"

Shinji looked askance at the animated boy. "What type of a name is that? 'Over the Rainbow'? It sounds... well, lame." He ignored the hurt expression Kensuke wore, turning back to look at the already massive ship growing larger as they drew closer.

"C'mon, man, you can't tell me you never heard about the 'Over the Rainbow'? The American super-heavy Retribution-Class aircraft carrier?" Sighing as Shinji shook his head as Misato chuckle, he continued. "The ship's real name is the USS Resplendent, but everyone calls it the 'Over the Rainbow' because of what happened during Second Impact. It got washed out of the dry-dock at Hawaii, where it was being built, and everyone thought it was lost to the tidal wave and massive storms spawned by the event. However, after two weeks it showed back up, perfectly fine, even though it was crewed by only a tiny fraction of the normal crew compliment, all of them just workers and not sailors, and only having one of the five reactors on-line. When asked where they had been, the foreman who had taken command had only said that they had been over the rainbow."

Shinji looked back at Kensuke, clearly unimpressed. "Did you breathe at all when saying all of that?"

Misato laughed as she watched Kensuke sputter in inarticulate annoyance. "Sit down boys, we're about to land." Following her own advice, she sat down, but didn't strap back in, preferring instead to slouch down in the seat, kicking her legs out, smiling as she earned a sideways glance from the crew chief of the helicopter. _Still got it._

Once the door was thrown open, she led the way off, followed by an overly enthusiastic Kensuke, gushing over the assorted military hardware with more energy than most women in a shoe store. Shinji followed at a more sedate pace, stretching out as he yawned.

Eying the grinning faces of the sailors as they watched Misato with interest and Kensuke with amusement, Shinji sighed as he followed the duo. _Why did we come here? What sort of meeting is going to be here? Don't they have video conferences for things like this?_ He looked around some more, but nothing he saw really gave him more information. He certainly had no idea what these things were, even if Kensuke was throwing names and descriptions out in a rapid fire manner.

_What purpose does it serve to have me come here? _He slowed down as he rounded the corner the others had already past, seeing Misato talking to a girl as Kensuke stared in open mouthed shock. _I guess she's pretty enough. Is this who Misato's come to meet? Who is she? Another pilot? Maybe the Second Child?_

"-and that's not all! I've filled out too! Oh, I'm so glad you decided to come out early Misato. I've been so bored here on the sh-"

Her melodic voice was cut off as a gust of wind seemed to come out of nowhere (Shinji would later find out that this wasn't uncommon) and send her yellow sundress billowing up around her. She squawked in a very unmelodious manner as she thrust her dress back down, hiding the pink panties she was wearing from view. Then with a quickness she bounded across the deck to imperiously smack both Kensuke and Shinji across the face.

"Ow! What was that for?" Kensuke complained, rubbing his face. The girl whirled on him, her voice much harsher now than it had been, matching her scowl.

"That was the viewing fee! Quite a bargain, nicht?"

Misato chuckled as Kensuke retorted, his voice just as acerbic as hers. "It might have been a bargain, but don't go selling something that nobody wants to buy!"

"**WHAT?**"

As the girl and Kensuke descended into bickering, none of them noticed that Shinji's eye twitching momentarily, nor the effort it took for him to unclench his right fist.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"Absolutely not. I'll not sign that toy over to you until we reach port." The admiral turned his scowl from Misato to the view of the ocean through the window of the command deck, situated high in the tower that sat in the center of the ship. Kensuke and Auska, despite their instant dislike for each other held twin expressions of angry surprise.

Misato however kept a calm and polite demeanor. "That is your prerogative, Sir. However, I must remind you that in any event of Angelic activity, I will be in command, as per U.N. Regulation Number 89752, subsection C. I will expect your full cooperation."

"Whatever. Just get your boyscout troop off my bridge."

"Aww, Admiral, is that anyway to talk to such an attractive NERV Commander?" Shinji turned around in surprise to see a rough shaven man not wearing a uniform like the sailors or Misato, but a shirt and tie getup that wouldn't be out of place in an office building, even if the shirt was untucked and his clothes looked like they had never even heard of an iron or starch. A cigarette was tucked behind one ear, and his hair was drawn into a pony-tail.

"Kaji!" Both Misato and Auska said at the same time, but where Misato's was infuriated, the younger girl's was clearly in adoration.

Kaji smiled again, even as the Admiral snarled at him. "Mr. Ryoji! How many times do I have to ask you to keep off my bridge? Get out of here, and take the rest of your NERV people with you!"

They all crowded in the corridor. Kaji kept smiling, and clapped a hand on Shinji's shoulder, causing the boy to flinch slightly and try to worm his way out of the man's grip. Unfortunately, there was nowhere to go.

"Let's go down to the cafeteria, shall we?"

_Does he always smile like that?_ Shinji thought to himself, managing to pull away as they moved down the hall, the two adults side by side, Misato refusing to speak to the man, followed by Kensuke and Auska, each dogging the footsteps of the chatty man and silent woman while trying to ignore each other. _Well, Miss Misato doesn't seem to like him much. I wonder how they know each other?_ Sighing to himself, he reluctantly followed the others through the bowels of the ship to the cafeteria, where they secured a table for themselves, with Misato and Kensuke sitting on one side, mirrored on the other by Kaji and Auska. Shinji wandered over to one of the glass faced refrigerators, wondering if he had to pay money in order to get a drink, only half listening to the conversation behind him.

"So I'm here to supervise the hand off of Unit-02 to NERV, as well as chaperoning Auska here."

Misato was clearly not impressed. "They couldn't have picked someone more responsible for that?"

She turned to the girl. "Oh, Auska, I'm sorry that they saddled you with this idiot. If I had known that they were going to do that to you, I would have refused reassignment!"

Auska only grinned at the older woman, as she attempted to wrap an arm around one of Kaji's, but the man slipped out of it with ease as he pulled the cigarette from behind his ear, fiddling with it. "Oh, it's not a problem at all, Misato! Kaji's just been the best!"

Rolling his eyes as Misato suddenly smirked at him, he looked over to Shinji as he was inspecting the drinks. "So you're Shinji Ikari, the Third Child."

Turning around, Shinji turned a faint red as four pairs of eyes focused on him, not all of them particularly warm. "Um, yes, but how do you know my name? I'm not that important." he said weakly, wishing that he had never come on this trip.

If anything, this caused Kaji's smile to grow even larger. "Oh, you're quite famous in my line of work, Shinji. The defense business is all abuzz about you."

Kensuke spoke up, pride in his voice. If his friend wasn't going to sing his own praises, then he would. "See, that's what we've been telling you, Shin-man. You're famous! You can't save the world a couple times over without people noticing, you know."

"Well, he can step aside now and let a pro handle things. I've been training for years, and my Unit-02 is the first production model! It's superior to the prototype and test-type units in every way!"

"Care to share the specifications, then?" Kensuke bored holes in her with his eyes, causing her to recoil slightly in reflex at the look of hunger behind his glasses. She inwardly cursed herself for showing weakness in the face of the enemy.

"Sure thing, geek. My Evangelion's got better armor, faster response time, a higher-"

Misato cut the girl off, waving her hand in the air. "OK, OK. That's enough. No bragging about the units outside of NERV. I'm going to go check on the unloading of the power cable." She pushed away from the table, ignoring Kaji as he also stood.

"I'm afraid that I too have an errand that I need to attend to. It was a pleasure seeing you again Misato." He winked at the irritated purple haired woman, and disappeared out the hatch, Auska quickly following him without a glance back to the others.

She eventually caught up with him as he exited his room, a satisfied look on his face.

_Drat. I'm never going to see what it is that he's got in that briefcase._

"Oh Kaji~!" She said, throwing her arms around him. "Where do you know Misato from? She had already left Berlin before you showed up."

Kaji smiled as he worked his way out of her embrace, causing her to pout. "Oh, I know her from before. We were actually friends in college. But that's old news. What do you think of the Third Child?"

As they came back out onto the outside deck, she latched onto the rail, looking out at the other ships, picking out the one carrying her Evangelion with practiced ease. "Meh. He's not much to look at. He doesn't seem like he's a pilot at all. I had thought it was the other one, at first. He's got a better attitude for it, at least. The Third just seems, so... so meh."

Kaji grinned at her. "Well, he might be meh, but on his first attempt he synced with the Evangelion with a score of forty-two percent!"

Auska spun around, ignoring her hair as it whipped into her face. "Forty-two percent? On his first time in the Evangelion? Mein Gott!" She dashed off, pushing past him and back into the ship.

Kaji looked out over the railing, surveying the ships and the sea. _Oh, you poor, poor boy. I think that I might have just thrown you to the wolves. Ah well. _He sighed to himself, turning to go back to his room. _You really don't seem like what people would expect Ikari's son to be. You're much to fragile to be his son. But there's no denying your hidden strength, now is there?_

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji stared impassively at Auska as she spoke at length about her Evangelion. No matter how much he wished for silence, she would not shut up. Fortunately enough, it seemed that she was more than content to listen to her own prattle, and he did not need to respond.

Ducking under the tarp, he followed her into the large bay where the vermilion giant lay prone against the deck.

"Well, what do you think?"

_She obviously wants a response this time._ Shinji thought to himself as he stared at the Evangelion.

"Huh. It's painted red."

"Well, that's not all that's different about it! Like I was saying before, my Unit-02 is the most advanced model! It's the first production line unit! It's superior to the first two units in every way! With my Unit-02, anything that stands against me shall be defeated!"

_She seems very certain about all this. Maybe she's right. If it's as good as she says, she can take over. Will they still make me pilot it though?_

His internal musing and Auska's continuing exposition on the properties of her Unit-02 were interrupted by the sound of a massive explosion.

Both looked up, their eyes locking, and then rushed out to the railing. On the far end at the other side of the fleet a ship was burning. Suddenly, another ship, a massive battleship rose up out of the water, a great crack in the side that was visible even from where they stood. The ship settled back into the water, almost disappearing entirely from view before bobbing back up into view, as a vast plume of flame erupted from the center of the ship.

"What was that? Nothing ever touched it!" Auska shouted in shock, as an otherworldly keening wail filled the air, accompanied by the roar of cannon fire and engines as the fleet began to disperse and send high velocity death in all directions.

Shinji felt his heart sink and blood began to pound as a third ship exploded into fire with no apparent reason. "It's an Angel. It has to be."

"An Angel? A real one?" Wonder and hunger filled her voice, her eyes narrowing in expectation. "Wunderbar..."

Grabbing his arm, she dragged him from the railing back under the tarp. "Wait here! Don't you dare peek!"

Shinji looked at her in confusion as she vanished from view around Unit-02's leg. "What are you doing?"

"Changing into my plugsuit, of course! What else could I be doing, you idiot?" She called back sharply. "I've got a spare one for you; you can change while I get everything started."

Shinji recoiled in shock. "Y-you want to me to come along?"

Auska threw a red plugsuit at him. "Hurry up! I'm going to show you how it's done! You might have gotten lucky with a high synch score with your test-type, but I'll show you how a professional handles things!"

She clambered up the side of the Evangelion towards the waiting Entry Plug. Sighing, Shinji kicked his shoes off and started to changed into the suit, which seemed to be as different from his normal one as she claimed Unit-2 was from Unit-1.

_It's a lot more... girly. It looks like I've got breasts! _He looked down at himself in horror. _No. There's no way I'm wearing this. I might have worn a cat's collar but this is too much! _He reached for the button that sealed the suit, to change back into his school uniform. He had piloted in regular clothing before, and it would work just fine.

"Hurry up!"

Grumbling to himself he climbed up and joined the irritated girl. As soon as he entered the plug, pulling the hatch shut behind him, she played with the controls, and he felt the familiar feeling of disorientation as the plug sank into the Evangelion's body as LCL began to finish filling up the chamber.

Shinji tried to gain a good spot from which to watch Auska work, but when she looked at him holding onto the outside of the chair, she shook her head.

"That won't work with what I've got in mind, Third. Here, get in behind me." She bounced up out of the seat. "It's not ideal, but I won't be able to fight if you're bouncing around inside my plug." She narrowed her eyes at him as he scrambled into the seat. "No perverted stuff! This is war!"

Shinji rolled his eyes as she settled down into his lap, threading her feet into the stirrups and grabbing the controls.

Shinji listened with half an ear as she began spouting off verbal commands in German. _It responds to verbal commands? I don't think Unit-01 does that. At least, Dr. Akagi never said anything about it. _He was brought out of his ruminations as she drove an elbow into his ribs.

"Are you paying attention? I said for you to think in German! You're messing up the activation process!"

"I don't know any German! I'm Japanese!"

"Ugh! Wertlos! OK. Changing language settings to Japanese. Set primary connections! Activate Synchronization level three! Life-sign monitor active, engage all connections!"

Shinji felt the shudder of power, and the extending of awareness as they synchronized with Unit-02. It felt different from Unit-01, but how he wasn't able to put into words. It was just... different.

Auska opened up her communications suite and connected into the navel command frequency. "All ships, this is Evangelion Unit-02! I am moving to secure power on the Resplendent!"

She ignored the explosion of chatter on the radio band as she drew Unit-02 up, the tarp's restraints snapping and wrapping around the red giant like a shroud. Looking around for the Resplendent, she spoke to Shinji absently.

"Here, you talk to them. I don't care about what they have to say."

Shinji focused on listening to the radio chatter. He quickly recognized the voice of the disgruntled admiral from before. "-I say again, stand down! Do not activate that toy! Respond!"

Shinji felt the world lurch as they lifted off the deck of the ship. "uh... To late for that Sir. We're on our way now!"

Misato's voice poured over the radio suddenly as they jumped from the cruiser they had landed on. "Are you there too Shinji? Good job! I've got the power system all set and ready!"

"OK!" Shinji looked at the back of the red-headed girl's head. "They're ready for us on the ship."

"I heard that, Third. I've got ears you know!"

_Whatever. I'm only doing what you told me to._

Shinji's eyes widened as he saw a small plane zoom past them as they hurdled towards the massive aircraft carrier. He felt a smirk twist itself onto his face. _Someone's got the right idea... get away from here as fast as possible. But that's not possible for everyone..._

Pulling the power cable up and locking it into place, Auska and Shinji surveyed the ocean and the sea of life boats making for the larger ships as they all spread out, looking for the Angel that had attacked them.

"Where is it? Why's it not attacking anymore?

"I don't know. Just look for it!

Glaring at the girl on his lap, Shinji felt his ears prick up as the keening wail once more filled the air. They both saw the waves in the water turn to white froth as the Angel launched itself out of the water at them, it's mouth larger than any of the Angels Shinji had fought before opened wide, teeth as large as the Evangelion's arms shining like daggers.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Gendo looked up from his desk as the phone rang again. Kozo looked at the phone, and then at him.

"It's not going to answer itself, Gendo."

Ignoring him, the Commander lifted the receiver to his ear.

"Yes."

Dr. Akagi's voice was soft, and filled with regret. "Sir, I'm sorry. There's nothing we can do, because it's a sympathetic injury. He's asleep right now. We'll fit him for a prosthetic when he wakes up."

"Very well. You did what you could." his voice betrayed nothing, even and measured as he spoke. He calmly lowered the receiver back into it's cradle. He looked up to meet Kozo's questioning look.

"Well?"

"There's nothing to be done. That bitch took his leg."

Author's Notes:

To Cryptic Mirror: That's for the note on my idiotic spelling, but the city in question was indeed the city of Toyota, in the Mikawa region of Aichi.


	17. Chapter 17

Rei looked up from her book to the prone form of the brown-haired boy who had thrown her life into chaos as surely as a crescent wrench that was tossed into an operating turbine engine would cause a critical systems failure. He was still asleep, as he had been for the past ten hours. They had not allowed her to visit him when he had been brought in, nor did they allow her to observe them working on him. **Again**.

She was certain this was because they actually had done no work at all, and did not want anyone to notice. He was still missing a leg, after all. While she would not offer her opinion to anyone, unsolicited or not, she felt that if she had spent over thirty hours locked in an operating room and laboratory with him, he would not have left without two legs, even if she had to cut one off of some genetically suitable donor (willing or not) and graft it to him. They had the ability to create clones, after all. They even had the ability to modify the speed at which the clone's tissues developed. There was no reason that he should be sleeping there without two complete legs.

So it was that Rei was very much put out with the entirety of the senior leadership of NERV, including for the first time, Commander Ikari.

The drug mixture they were feeding him was substantial. They had chemically induced a coma, but for what reason, she had no clue. The wound (if it could be called that) had been clean, the limb cleanly absorbed by the hated Unit-02. Smooth, unmarred flesh, not even scar tissue, just normal flesh, covered the point where his left femur ended. No evidence that he had been born with two complete legs existed in his body. No patella, no bone fragments, no tendons or muscles from where the upper and lower legs connected. No damage at all to the tissues of the upper leg had been incurred.

He hadn't even been in any pain at time they had induced the coma. He had, according to all reports, stopped screaming long ago, on-board the ship, even before a frantic and desperate helicopter flight back to NERV had occurred.

She turned her silent, emotionless (but strangely accusatory) gaze to the nurse that also sat in the room, likewise keeping vigilance over the boy. The nurses came in shifts, trading out every two hours. Rei had not left the room since she had finally been allowed to enter it, some six hours ago.

The nurse tried to ignore the blue haired girl's stare, which was not an easy feat.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka sat on the catwalk that ran across the length of her Evangelion's cage, her legs sitting in the cool LCL mixture, staring at the impassive visage of her Unit-2. She knew, of course, about the issue of sympathetic injuries. She even knew and understood the basics about how it was even possible, thanks to the degree that she had earned, due in no small part of her wanting to know everything there was to know about the Evangelion. She knew it inside and out, no part of it a complete mystery to her, even if some aspects of it still confused her, but she was working on that. She had been looking forwards to learning underneath the Chairperson of the Evangelion Project directly, almost as much as she had been looking forwards to proving herself in battle against the Angelic threat.

This had all been thrown into disarray. She was no longer as certain as she had been on her understanding of her glorious Unit-02, all thanks to the Third Child.

The crux of the issue bothering her was the fact that in order for him to experience a sympathetic injury, he **had** to have had a synchronization score of more than forty percent to show actual physical damage. Anything below that, the 'injury' was only actualized as pain experienced in the brain. She herself had proven her theory that the pain was only in the brain, and not even transmitted from the nerves in the limb itself. Only at the forty percent point, where physical harm began, did information pass from those nerve clusters and endings to the brain. Even at the forty percentile, however, the physical harm was minor compared to the actual injury done to the Evangelion. Break the Evangelion's arm for instance, and the pilot would only experience bruising. It wouldn't feel like she was getting a bruising, it felt like her arm was broken, but it wouldn't break.

That hadn't tested to see at what point that occurred. Even she had limits to what she would inflict on herself. However, even during an accident during one test, when she had been synced at fifty-four percent, her foot had not been broken like Unit-02's.

She had reviewed the internal logs, and they showed that during the fight a synchronization score of eighty-five percent, much higher than her personal best of fifty-eight, had been achieved. This was a singular score, however. She (and Dr. Akagi, Tech Division One and the MAGI) attributed this to two trained pilots being present in the plug, somehow acting as amplifiers for each other. They had synced together, as one mind, to Unit-02.

While not entirely pleasing to her, it was also not entirely unexpected. They had been working with one will, one purpose; to kill the Angel. What bothered her more was the fact that when the Angel had claimed Unit-02's lower left leg, his had disappeared. It wasn't broken, it wasn't just cut or bitten off, it **vanished**, leaving a limp section of plug-suit, and the Third Child screaming into her ears, and vomiting into the LCL.

She hadn't even felt a sting.

She had been the driving will behind the Evangelion, she had felt it's gloriousness during activation and synchronization. She moved her hand, and Unit-02 slammed it's fist into the beast. She flexed her legs, and it jumped from ship to ship like a child playing at hopscotch.

But when Unit-02 was hit, when it bled, when it's leg was bitten off by that terrible maw, she had felt **nothing**.

She hadn't even noticed the fact that they were even injured until after seeing her (Unit-02's) bleeding stump pull away from the Angel's mouth even as she slammed a jet fighter (unoccupied) into the beast's face.

Why?

Misato and all the others didn't understand why she was so angry, why she railed against everything, from words of encouragement and congratulations to those of sympathy.

It wasn't because she was blaming herself out of so called survivor's guilt. She was not upset because she felt that if she had done something else, tried some other tactic, or responded differently, paid more attention to some detail, that they would have come out without a scratch, or at least with all limbs still attached.

No, it was something completely different, inbred into her over the course of years of dedicating herself to the Evangelion Project in general, and Unit-02 in particular.

The Third Child had come from out of nowhere, engaged and defeated the first three Angels. Then he went and beat that ridiculous robot. The pilot of Evangelion Unit-01 was indeed famous, even if almost no-one outside a small circle of people knew the Third Child's name. It should have been her, the one who had been working all her life towards this, to have that fame. The glory. This was **her** war!

Now, to add insult to injury, when she had brought him along as an observer, he went and dared to synch with her Unit-02, even if it wasn't intentional. She was sure that it was an accident. He hadn't even been interested in it, for crying out loud! Then, in the height of battle, he had the gall to go and be the one that felt her Unit-02's pain and suffering, not her! His leg had been severed. His body reflected the state of her Unit-02. He was the one that was of one mind and body with the Evangelion. Not her.

But perhaps the worst of it was that they hadn't even defeated the Angel! After smashing it's face in with the jet, she had continued to fight, ripping out several of the thing's own teeth to use as daggers against it. But it had all been in vain, for it had retreated to the bottommost depths of the ocean.

No one knew where it was. They had called off the submarines searching for it when several went missing, over an area that covered almost all of the Pacific Ocean.

She took no pleasure in the fact that she had done what previously had been considered impossible; making an Angel retreat.

It mattered not to her that she could have been the one to lose a leg. In fact, she was convinced that what should have occurred was a sharing of an injury at least, as they had shared synchronization. But no, the Third Child had to somehow claim the full brunt of the attack. If anything, it should have been her.

Asuka narrowed her eyes into a glare as she kicked LCL up onto one of the lower 'eyes' of her Unit-02. _None of this makes any sense, and I will get to the bottom of this. Why would you favor the Third, that spineless, simpering boy? What's so great about him that you would give him the honor of marking him as one who has sacrificed themselves in the war against the enemy? They all are showering him with attention. Why has he stolen my glory? If he hadn't been there, it would have been me fighting alone! I would have been able to defeat the Angel, instead of being distracted by that fool's cries and disgusting display of weakness! And now they won't even let me run my own tests on my Unit-02! _

Asuka scowled as she stood up, crossing her arms and turning her back on the Evangelion, and took a step back when she saw the famed Dr. Akagi standing there, hands in the pockets of her lab-coat, and a speculative look on her face.

"Dr. Akagi! I'm sorry I didn't notice you before. I was just lost in thought." the girl said, keeping her voice light but somewhat troubled.

"Thinking about the battle I suppose?"

"Of course! I'm trying to reason out why the Third Child suffered a sympathetic injury in response to the wound endured by my Unit-02. It makes no sense at all!"

Dr. Akagi smiled sadly. "No, it doesn't." she sighed, nodding at the girl to follow her. "If anything, you both should have shared a more minor injury, as all evidence supports a theory that you both were contributing to the unusually high synchronization ratio that was recorded."

Asuka nodded. "That's exactly my point!" They walked down the hall in silence for a few minutes, Asuka recognizing the way to Dr. Akagi's lab. She eyed the Chairperson of Project E carefully. "Uh... How is the Third Child doing? I mean, from what I've heard, the wound itself is strange. It's not even a wound."

"He is currently in a coma while we try to figure this out." Ritsuko's eyes narrowed behind her glasses as she sighed softly in irritation.

"A coma? But why? I thought that there wasn't anything anyone could do about it. Why not just fit him for a prosthetic? I mean, he shouldn't even have to undergo physical therapy. All that's done by keeping him under is delay the inevitable."

"Orders from higher."

Asuka stopped walking for a moment, before hurrying to catch up. "Higher? But... there's only two people higher than you in the command chain! The Commander ordered him put in a coma?"

Ritsuko sighed again, the annoyance she felt clearly expressed. "Yes. The Commander ordered him put into a coma. I don't understand what he hopes for us to find. Nothing we've seen so far in our tests even has a hint of giving him a new leg. Keeping him under for a prolonged period won't do anything but risk him losing the muscle memory that we've worked hard to train into him being lost."

_What? They would risk losing the only redeeming thing about the Third Child? _"Why would they risk loosing a somewhat effective pilot? I mean, I know that I'm here, so the two test pilots are backups, but there's no reason to waste resources!"

Ritsuko smiled again. "Indeed! And that's why I want you to take a look at the MAGI's analysis of the battle. I've gotten good reports about your aptitude with the technical and theoretical aspects of the Evangelions. If there's anything I might have missed, a fresh perspective might see something. Then again, maybe not. But if that's the case, it just adds more weight to my case with the Commander as far as waking Shinji up."

_This is great! Access to the MAGI supercomputers? There's so much information in them about the Evangelions! If I am robbed of a chance to show my skill in battle, I can make up for that with my technical skills!_

"I'd be honored to, Dr. Akagi!"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"Leave us."

Rei ignored the nurse as the woman nodded silently and left, closing the door behind her. Instead, her eyes were on the Commander as he looked out the window into the Geo-Front. She waited silently, standing in front of her chair, her book lying forgotten where she had dropped it when he had entered the room.

She noted that he hadn't even looked at his son, despite passing by his bed on the way to the window.

"Rei, you have been in this room for three days. You have never let the Third Child out of your sight in this time, even when you use the restroom. When a nurse first tried to close the restroom door, you informed her that if she did you would throw her out of the window."

"Yes."

"Rei, the window in this room does not open."

"Yes."

"Why?"

Commander Ikari's question threw the girl for a loop. While she was certain that he was questioning her on the reason behind her threat and not the reason why the window in a room that was several stories above the ground surface of the Geo-Front, Rei felt that the answers to both questions were self evident.

"I am unwilling to let Pilot Ikari out of my sight."

"Why is that, Rei?"

"I do not wish to do so."

"Elaborate."

"..." Rei stared at the Commander's back, and then dropped her eyes down to the boy lying in the bed. She opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it. "It is my fault that he was injured."

Unbeknownst to Rei, Gendo's eye twitched. It was the only indication that he had anything other than a vague interest in the conversation. "You were not there. How is it that you are at fault?"

"I was not there. If I had been, then he would not have been present inside Unit-02 during the Angel attack."

"Do you know this for certain?"

"Yes." _If Pilot Soryu thinks that she will be able to utilize him for her own research, she is very much mistaken. I would not permit such a... volatile variable interfere with my Science. _

"The Third Child is in a chemically induced coma. The nurses will ensure that nothing happens to him. You will return to your home, bathe, and return to school on the following day, and you are to say nothing of what has transpired. In addition, the medical and security staff will be told that you are not to visit him until I say otherwise."

"..."

"That is an order, Rei. Do not make me repeat it."

"Yes, Sir."

Rei gathered up her books and quietly left the room, ignoring the Sub-Commander as he stood outside.

Kozo smiled sadly as he watched her silently enter the elevator at the end of the hall before he entered Shinji's room.

Gendo stood at the foot of the hospital bed, his hands in his pockets as he stared at the still form of his son.

"Do you think that she meant it?"

"She has never said anything that she did not mean, Kozo."

The elderly man sighed as he sat down in Rei's chair. "She has never said anything like that before, either." he pointed out, folding his hands in front of his face as he studied both father and son. "They are growing closer together at least, if she feels strongly enough about him to throw a nurse through a window."

"Perhaps it is too much, too soon. I do not need her to become unstable enough to casually threatening people with murder. Her attitude towards the Third Child is far outside how she should be acting. It makes me wonder if she needs more supervision."

"Do you think that you have bitten off more than you can chew?"

Hard, but tired eyes flicked over from his son to his second in command. "Kozo, I am engaged in a war against the Illuminati, and I am winning. By definition, there is nothing in this world or the next that I cannot chew."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei ignored the whispers of the class as she had for years prior. At least, that was the way it seemed to the class at first, as she sat down in the seat that Shinji normally occupied, instead of taking her normal seat by the window, she. In truth, this time she paid no attention to what was being said, neglecting to take notice of the conversations she spawned by her presence and actions. She had other things on her mind this day.

Hikari causally approached the blue haired girl. "Rei? We haven't seen you or Shinji for a while. Ken won't say anything at all about it to us."

Rei focused on her laptop, not looking at her tentative friend. "It is a classified subject. I have been ordered to say nothing on the matter, as I imagine he has." She reached down into her bag and withdrew one of the textbooks used in class, saying nothing more to Hikari.

The troubled Class Representative noted with both interest and worry that the book was Shinji's, marked by a circular stain on the cover, caused by an accident on day during lunch. It was with great reluctance that she moved back to her desk, and so lost in her own thoughts that she almost did not call the class to honor their teacher. Instead of dutifully paying attention to the lesson, she, and some others, kept sneaking looks at the blue haired girl who stared more intently at the screen of her laptop than any could ever recall her doing in the past.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"How long will you keep him asleep?"

Gendo ignored the Sub-Commander as he read the latest report from Captain Katsuragi, detailing the current operations of her navel search fleet, currently deploying sensor buoys in an effort to locate the missing Angel.

"We both know that there's no reason to keep him asleep like this. Are you trying to see if our newest addition to the staff will leak this information to the old men?"

"An interesting proposition, but no. For once, I think I have a purely altruistic motive. The Third Child has always had an history of nightmares. The MAGI's brain wave scans while he was asleep after the battles with the Third, Fourth and Fifth Angels have provided proof of this. We're keeping him under, but not in REM sleep. He's had no dreams these past few days, but there is a limit to what our pharmaceuticals can do. He'll be brought out of it tomorrow."

Kozo watched his old student carefully. "That's it? No underlying plan to use the accident to further your goals?"

"It's odd, I'll admit, but no. But it has a limit, this altruistic shadow of mine. Even if I could, I would not keep the Third Child asleep for much longer. The Captain's plan to find the Angel is sound; even without the aid of the UN Submarine Force. It will be located, sooner or later."

"Even then, it will eventually have to come here. With both ADAM and Lilith in our possession, it is only a matter of time."

"Indeed. The Captain's search is ultimately pointless, but it would not do to let her know that just now. I must admit that I find her pure, honest enthusiasm quite refreshing. It means that we can depend on her to do what is needed to win this war."

"What about the other pieces? Even if you can depend on her, there are others that seem to be becoming problems. What are you going to do about Rei? She seems to be becoming **very** attached to the boy. We wanted him to be the one to act strongly in regards to her, not the other way around."

"I am sure that with the proper... encouragement... she will return to normal. We need to not overlook the fact that this is the first real friendship that she's had with anyone. The idea of losing her only friend must be terrifying."

Kozo nodded. _He's right. She can only view us as her superiors, and thus not all that close. The dinners that they shared previously were largely perfunctory affairs. She was very worried when he was hospitalized last time..._ "True. But she still needs to be kept on her leash, even if you decide to lengthen it."

"She will obey her orders. It is all that she knows how to do. And if she doesn't? She can be replaced, even if it's somewhat of a bother."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei looked at the Section 2 agent, who impassively stared straight ahead of him, ignoring her as she approached the elevator for the hospital wing. When she reached for the call button, he shook his head.

"Miss, you're not allowed in the hospital section right now. The elevators won't work for you."

_How will they not work for me? They do not operate on a biological security system. In addition, there is no way for him to bar me entrance without physically restraining me, which is highly unlikely._ Her red eyes narrowed as she didn't quite glare at the man. _Ah. He most likely has to give a verbal password to a remote operator, who would then activate the elevators. If they were using the MAGI to restrict my movements, there would be no need for a guard._

Rei felt herself growing annoyed. While she was confident that she could overpower the man, he would not give up the pass-code. Also, the Commander would find out, eventually if not immediately. She had held no high hopes of gaining access to Ikari's room this way, but the attempt had to be made.

"Where is Dr. Akagi?" She managed to ask for the blond haired woman without spitting out the name like a curse. Sometimes it was harder than others. If you asked her why, she could not satisfactorily explain why she felt a deep seated loathing for the head of Project E. While the fact that the Commander dallied with her was of no pleasure to the girl, she had disliked the woman long before she had figured that out. The enmity she felt for the blond scientist was a mystery to the girl, who had given up on trying to figure it out. She had long ago halted active research into why it was so, deciding that it would have to wait.

There was only one reason why Rei would voluntarily go looking for the woman that she had named as her nemesis. During her conversation with the MAGI while she was at school, Rei had learned that Dr. Akagi and the pilot of the hated Unit-02 were sequestered in her labs, working on something to do with the red Evangelion.

Rei hadn't bothered to ask them what the two were working on. She didn't care.

She wanted to know what was being done for Ikari, and who was working on it, if the head of Project E couldn't be bothered with the task.

The Section 2 agent pressed a finger to his ear, obviously getting some sort of information transmitted to him. She waited patiently, staring up at him expectantly.

"Dr. Akagi is located in her secondary lab, near the cages."

Rei turned and began her trek towards the cages without a word to the secret agent. He watched her go without a word, breathing a sigh of relief.

As she made her way through the labyrinthine complex, she kept her eyes forwards and mouth shut tight in a look of bored disinterest, but she was counting her steps and keeping track of changes in direction. By the time that she arrived at the secondary laboratory, just off the main hanger with the storage/standby Evangelion cages, she had a perfect mental map of how one got from the medical wing to the hanger complex, and how long it took her while walking at a normal, unhurried pace.

Dr. Akagi looked up in surprise as Rei walked into her lab. "Rei? What are you doing here?"

"I would like to know which medical personnel are currently assigned to Pilot Ikari."

To say that Ritsuko Akagi was shocked would be to vastly simplify things. Yes, she was shocked, but it was not that Rei was asking after Shinji. It was that she was **specifically** asking after him. Ritsuko knew all too well that the two pilots had been growing attached to each other in the manner of healthy young boys and girls everywhere, her objections non-withstanding, but for Rei Ayanami, the silent, obedient, and most importantly of all, reactive girl, to be actively looking into the case of Shinji Ikari, well, that was indeed a shock.

The original plan had called for the girl to be conditioned to the point where she did not initiate anything on her own. She would follow orders, yes, and when given an end state to achieve, she would single-mindedly work to meet the objective, but she was ultimately a tool to be used. She was never supposed to take the initiative in anything else. She would follow all directions and orders, she would fight against the Angels, and then she would be used to initiate and control Third Impact.

Despite Gendo's suggestion that the two pilots be allowed to grow closer that the plan had originally called for, she had had misgivings about that from the start. So she had worked as best as she could to limit the amount of time that the two had together. Getting the idea to run week long series of tests on one pilot and then the other from a series of sleep deprivation tests that Maya had come up with, Dr. Akagi had felt that she had done a good job of it lately.

Then had come that riot of a party Misato had insisted on, and if the few photos that she had seen were anything to go on, she obviously hadn't done a good enough job. But she had held no inkling that things had developed enough to the point where this girl would actually be chasing after the boy.

"Ultimately, I am the one in charge of his case, Rei. Why do you ask?"

"What is the current status on bringing Pilot Ikari back to conciseness? What is the current status on a prosthetic for his leg?" _Why are you down here instead of working on him? Why do you waste his time?Why do you waste my time?_

Dr. Akagi raised an eyebrow as she studied the girl standing in her doorway. She wondered just how attached to the boy she was, and how much she would do because of that attachment. "Everything is progressing to Commander Ikari's time-line, Rei." she said, her voice warm and friendly, but the smile only reached her eyes when she watched the tiny, almost imperceptible way that the girl tensed up in what Ritsuko could only term annoyance. She doubted that anyone else would have noticed it, the reaction was so slight. "He will be brought out of the coma tomorrow afternoon. A prototype transtibial prosthetic is being prepared for him; he is scheduled to receive a cybernetic knee replacement the day after that."

Rei turned and left with as little fanfare as she had arrived, leaving the softly chuckling scientist behind. _So, you find out what you wanted and leave. You are just like him, in some ways. At least he's seen reason and is bringing the boy back out of the coma. _She looked back up as the door opened again, this time to allow the entry of Asuka, bearing a tray with food from the nearest cafeteria. The girl was one after Ritsuko's heart, as dedicated to the Evangelion Project as any of her regular techs, even if she wasn't as up to speed or held as complete an education as them. It was rather cute, in a way, how the girl ate up every little thing that she said. She was sure that when Maya returned from assisting Misato with the time wasting (but conveniently distracting) hunt for the Angel, they would get along perfectly.

It would be a shame that she would be placed into the high school for socialization with the other pilots after the conclusive defeat of this Angel. It would have been nice to have a keen mind with a scientific bent to test things out on the Evangelions for a change. Shinji and Rei followed orders and submitted themselves to her tests willingly enough, but they just didn't understand the reasoning behind the myriad tests. She had stopped trying to explain it to the girl long ago, and she hadn't even bothered with the boy. Aoba and Maya tried, but as one could expect, the specifics were lost on him.

"Here, Sempai! I managed to snatch up the last of the ones they had."

"Ah! Good job, Asuka! OK, we'll take a short break, and then we'll check on the regeneration levels on the lower leg of Unit-02."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei's eyes narrowed as she stared at the vegetable section of the supermarket. She had not been here before, having instead done her food shopping at a smaller convenience store closer to her apartment, but that store did not offer the variety of fresh produce that this store did. After coming to the conclusion that any real attempt to gain entry to the medical wing and Ikari's room would have unfavorable consequences, she had returned home to eat and sleep. However, the instant soup that she had prepared for herself that evening as she had done so for many a prior one no longer seemed sufficient.

Rei was at first at a loss to explain why she had initially toyed with the noodles before throwing the styrofoam carton into the trash in disgust. It wasn't that she was no longer hungry, for she still needed to meet her caloric intake for the day; no, as she would eventually decide, while it might meet her caloric requirements, it did not meet her emotional requirements.

Rei, in short, wanted comfort food.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

_I was not aware that there were so many variety of onion. No, that is incorrect. I was aware that the Allium cepa's numerous types before, but it is different seeing even a small assortment of them arrayed so for sale and subsequent consumption. What type of onion did he use in the soup that he made for me?_

She moved along the aisle, deciding to come back to the onions later, deciding to find the carrots. She had seen only two types available for purchase; bagged 'baby' ones, and larger ones that she assumed meant that were of the 'adult' variety. She was bagging a pair of the adult carrots when a familiar voice sounded behind her.

"Rei? What are you doing here?"

Rei straightened and turned around to face a startled Hikari.

"I am purchasing food." Rei looked at the girl, and at the basket she held, and the food contained therein. There was a marked difference between her basket and the Class Representative's.

Hikari blushed in embarrassment. "Oh, sorry, that's not what I meant! I mean, I don't think I've ever seen you in here before."

"No."

"Umm... well, what are you buying? I didn't know that you knew how to cook. I mean, I've only ever seen you with purchased meals at school."

"I do not know how to cook." Rei stated, but as she watched the pig tailed girl shift from one foot to the other, she felt obligated to add to her statement. "I am attempting to duplicate a recipe of Ikari's." Crimson eyes shifted to the floor as her cheeks tinged with pink. "It is soup."

Hikari smiled now, probably the first real smile since Kensuke had showed back up in class refusing to speak about his the trip, or Shinji and Rei's absences from class. "What type of soup?"

"... Vegetable soup. He made it with leftover rice, celery, carrots, onions and potatoes." Rei turned to stare at the carrots. "It was good." she offered, her voice smaller than normal.

"That's right, you're a vegetarian." Hikari looked at Rei's basket, noting the presence of a bag of microwavable rice, two stalks of celery and a pair of carrots. "Do you want any help?"

Rei nodded silently, tightening her grip on the basket's handle, confused as to why she felt embarrassed about not being knowledgeable enough to purchase adequate supplies to make a seemingly simple soup. In all almost all other cases of her not having adequate data and information to complete a task, it had never bothered her like this to seek the required guidance to do what she needed to do. "I do not know what onions he used."

"Oh, well, for a soup, I would use these onions here." Rei paid Hikari careful attention as she went on to explain the differences of the various onions, and how to select the best ones from them. Hikari then inspected her celery, and at her instance they went back to that part of the produce section and got the confused girl crisper stalks, without wilted leaves.

By the time the girls got to the checkout, Rei had her supplies for her soup, new laundry detergent, body soap, shampoo, **and **several recipe books that Hikari recommended. When the girl parted ways outside the store, Hikari left with her spirits higher than they had been in a while, pleased that she had been of help to Rei in more ways than one; as she had been horrified to find out in the somewhat one-sided conversation that the girl didn't use shampoo in her hair but just regular bar soap.

Rei still wasn't sure what had happened even when she had returned home.

She set everything out on the counter, trying to decide the proper order in which to prepare each component of the soup. His rice had been leftovers from the night before, so it had been precooked. However, she was circumventing this fact with a pouch of instant rice. It would only take a few minutes for it to become warm and soft in the microwave, which would in turn reduce the amount of time it needed to sit in the vegetable broth. Therefore, she needed to start cooking that first.

Dumping the broth into her new pot, she put it over the small kitchen's eye, and then proceeded to begin chopping up the vegetables as he had. Once this was done, she cooked her rice and dumped the steaming clumps into the broth, shortly followed by the vegetable medley, and then stirred the contents of the pot.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei stared at the security guard. The guard in turn tried to ignore Rei. As her hand slowly made it's way towards the call button for the elevator, he sighed.

"You're still not allowed in the medical wing, Miss."

"Pilot Ikari is supposed to be waking up today."

"That is what I have heard, yes. However, the orders are still that you're not allowed to see him."

Rei stared at him, thinking to herself. She had prepared for this eventuality, and while the expected outcome was not by any means perfect, it did end with her in the medical wing, and thus closer to him.

"In the event of a medical emergency, would I be admitted to the medical ward?"

Behind his dark sunglasses the Section 2 agent blinked. The shift brief hadn't mentioned anything about this. He quietly spoke into the microphone hidden in his cuff, calling the main office. He watched her carefully as she stood there waiting for an answer, as his team leader's voice came over the net.

Shaking his head, he dropped his hand back to his side. "In an emergency, you'd be taken to the secondary medical wing."

"When will I be allowed to see Pilot Ikari?"

"I don't know."

Rei turned and left.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji did not want to open his eyes for a few reasons. One reason was that he knew that he was in the NERV hospital wing. He knew this because it spelled of antiseptic cleaners, the noises of medical equipment, and the presence of an IV in his arm. The second reason that he didn't want to open his eyes was because he could not feel anything below his left knee.

While these things made him generally less than thrilled, he could hear someone breathing softly and the soft rustle of paperwork. He smiled, and opened his eyes, pushing himself up into a sitting position in the bed.

His smile died, the words he was about to speak doing likewise as he saw one of the nurses sitting next to him reading a medical chart. Confused, he looked around the room, but the blue haired girl he had expected to see was missing.

The nurse smiled at him, putting the chart down. "Ah! Welcome back, Pilot Ikari. How are you feeling?"

Shinji studiously avoided looking at the bed, focusing instead on the ceiling. "I'm fine..." He kept wiggling his toes on his foot, despite the fact that he didn't really like the fact that there action was trying to do it for both feet. Unfortunately, it was like having a loose tooth in one's head that you keep poking with your tongue, despite the shivers the sensation sends down your spine.

The nurse nodded as she noticed the movement under the sheets. "You'll be getting a cybernetic knee and a replacement leg later; Dr. Akagi will be in to talk to you about it soon." She stood, smoothing out her skirt. "Is there anything that I can get you? Some food, or something to drink?"

"Umm... what time is it?" There were no clocks in the room, and the constant light of the Geo-Front made it hard to know what part of the day it was.

"It's just after four in the afternoon."

"Oh..." his face fell, this news making him look so depressed it made the nurse physically uncomfortable. He flopped back down onto his bed, staring at the ceiling.

She stood there for second before bolting for the door. "I'll just go let everyone know that you're back up. If you need anything, just press the call button on the stand." With that, she slipped out the door, leaving him to his thoughts.

_I wonder why she's not here. I guess it's kind of unreasonable to expect her to keep showing up here every-time I go and get myself hurt. She's probably tired of it. _He blinked, as the import of the nurse's words dawned suddenly on him. _'Welcome back'? What did she mean by that? Was I in a coma or something? How long was I out? What's happened? Has something happened to Rei? _He shot back up again, frantically looking around for something by which to tell the date, but he saw nothing useful. Frantically scrambling, adrenaline pumping through his veins like fire, he hauled himself out of bed, not even wincing as hit the floor. He crawled towards the small bathroom, his IV caddy falling down and dragging behind him as he made his way across the floor.

Hauling himself up on the sink, he sighed in relief as his face, still recognizable as his and not aged at all stared back at him from the mirror. Breathing hard, he carefully managed to move to sit down on the toilet. He chuckled nervously. _Whew... I guess I was just asleep for maybe a few days at most._ His laugh died as his eyes caught the smooth stub of his left leg, poking out from under the hospital gown he wore.

His pupils dilated suddenly, his entire body shaking as he started to dry heave, vomiting up bile and stomach acid from his otherwise empty stomach. Wiping his mouth, his eyes narrowed as the alarm klaxon that signified the approach of an Angel began to wail.

_Angel. One is coming. _His fists clenched as a growl escaped from his raw, abused throat. _I have to get to Unit-01. _

He had managed to get halfway to the door when two Section 2 men burst in, one chattering to someone on a radio. Shinji looked up at them as one hauled him upright.

"I need to get to the cages."

Both security men stared at him, not believing what they had just heard. Shinji struggled in the man's grip, trying to get the man to move.

"I need to get to the cages. I have to pilot. I need to go!"

"Kid, you're missing a leg. You're not in any shape to be fighting. Orders are to get you to a secure location. Ayanami will handle the Angel."

The man's words had the opposite of the expected effect on the boy; who now struggled even more. "NO! I can't let her fight alone! You have to let me go!"

"Get a grip, kid. I know you want revenge, but let Ayanami handle the fish, OK?" The man maneuvered Shinji into a wheelchair that had been left outside the room when the men had seen him crawling towards the door.

Shinji's head snapped back up. "Revenge? Fish? It's the same one as before? We didn't kill it?"

"No, you ran it off, but now it's here and it's Ayanami's responsibility."

Shinji continued to struggle. "NO! It's too much for one Evangelion! What about Unit-02? Where's Soryu?"

"Unit-02's still regenerating the leg that got bitten off. Look, calm down. Yeah, it's an Angel, but it's just a fish, your girlfriend will be able to handle it once it hits land."

Later on, Shinji would apologize to the two men, but like after his fight on the train, he wouldn't mean it. He wouldn't even care about the ten days that he would spend in solitary, or the enraged lectures from just about all the senior command staff. He would never be able to satisfactorily explain his next actions to anyone, including himself; saying that he only saw red.

He grabbed the stun gun from one man's belt before the surprised agent even knew what was happening, and pressed it against his leg. The man jerked backwards, falling to the ground in jumble of twitching limbs as the other man cursed and tried to step back from the boy, but it was too late. He hit the floor as the massive amount of voltage did it's job.

Dropping the expended gun to the floor, Shinji began to push himself to the elevators.

In the cages, two vast eyes glowed as massive fists clenched under the cover of LCL.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka glared at the screen as the blue prototype Evangelion made it's way towards the beach. It was galling that the Angel had the audacity to show up before her Unit-02 was fully repaired, leaving her on the sidelines as the mysterious pilot would take the credit for the kill. How was she supposed to show the girl who the alpha pilot was if she wasn't the one to finish the Angel? She knew that no one would care that she was the one who had injured it enough to make it the first Angel to retreat. All that anyone would care about was that this Rei Ayanami girl, who she hadn't even meet, had killed the Angel.

Cross compatibility tests had been scheduled for later on in the week, so they weren't even sure if she would be able to use the test-type Unit-01. Not that she would want to. There was only one Evangelion for her, and it was her glorious Unit-02.

It was only a small consolation that she was here on the command bridge to watch the fight. It was also her first chance to see the Commander, as he sat high above them on his tower. She had heard a lot of the stories, back in Berlin, but she felt that they didn't do him justice. If anything, he was more intimidating in person, even as removed as he was from them up from where he watched over them, as she imagined that she could feel his gaze burning holes into the back of her skull. She had of course noticed that the Commander and the Third Child shared the same last name, but so far the two seemed to be nothing alike. Dr. Akagi had refused to comment on it at all.

Unit-00 had reached the beachhead, and stood there, a heavily modified pallet rifle cradled in it's arms. Asuka snorted when she looked at the synchronization display, the girl was holding steady at thirty percent. She couldn't even remember the last time she had a score less than forty percent.

Dr. Akagi, nominally in command of the situation as Misato was still missing, her plane still about an hour out of Tokyo-03, opened a line to the pilot.

"Rei, the Angel is moving back and forth about three miles off shore. The MAGI are going to feed you some target telemetry. Once it's loaded, let the computer do the target acquisition. Once you get a target lock, fire the harpoon and load another one. Once you've got at least four good solid hits, we'll activate the winch and start to bring it to shore. Continue to hit it with the harpoons, and then once it's beached, use the progressive knife and destroy the core."

"Yes."

Asuka rolled her eyes. She wasn't sure who was worse; the First Child or the Third. While she still had to meet the girl, by all accounts she was even more boring than the boy had proven to be. Apparently, the girl had holed herself up in the boy's hospital room as soon as she had been allowed too; and had only left after three days because she had been ordered to.

Asuka didn't see whatever it was that the girl saw in the boy. It boggled the redhead that the girl hadn't even wanted to meet with the new pilot. She hadn't even return her phone calls. That was fine, though. If she needed to show these chumps that she was the alpha around here, doing it by force suited her just fine. It made things more interesting, anyhow. Asuka sighed again, once more bemoaning the incomplete state of repairs on her Unit-02.

The girl's soft voice filled the air, magnified several times by the speakers. "Target locked. Commencing attack."

A cheer went up as the first harpoon was fired, a red box bracketing it on-screen against the quickly darkening sky, the computer's firing pattern taking the growing winds into account as a storm rolled in from off shore. The harpoon vanished in the churning sea, but the MAGI reported a successful hit. As the Evangelion loaded a second harpoon into the gun, Dr. Akagi turned to Asuka, a grin on her face.

"Your idea to use core fragments from the Fourth Angel as components in the harpoon's barbs seems to have paid off! The MAGI didn't report the presence of an AT Field this time."

"Thanks Sempai!" Asuka nodded at the screen. "I just wish that **I** was the one out there. But I suppose I'll let Ayanami take care of it."

Dr. Akagi laughed as she turned back to the screen to watch Rei send another harpoon out into the ocean. "You'll get plenty of chances to fight. Don't you worry about that."

Kozo watched as a third harpoon sank into the sea, and this time a cheer went up as they saw blood spray up into the air as the pale white flesh of the Angel slid in and out of the waves.

"Everything seems to be going according to plan."

"Yes. This should be a simple battle. Therefore I am quite interested in seeing in just what matter things will suddenly go wrong. Even the simplest of plans does not survive contact with the enemy, and this plan is far from simple."

"At least we know where Rei is, and what she's doing."

Gendo snorted, but otherwise didn't shift from where he sat. "I was wondering how long it would be before she tried to sneak into the medical wing."

Kozo smiled. "I think the nurse's outfit was a little much, but she certainly did look the part."

"The wig was a nice touch, I thought. But it does underline the fact that she needs a closer eye kept on her. Even a month ago she would never have done something counter to my explicit order. Their bond is good, but it she should not value him over me."

"I thought that you were being awfully blasé about it. How do you plan on handling this?"

"I think that I need to have a dinner with her. To discuss things. She must have some questions about my prompting her to be closer with him, when in the end she is destined for oblivion."

"You will make him the carrot, then? He will be her reward, instead of the release into nothingness? Are you sure that she's that attached to him? I recall a young girl that used to ask us each day if this was the day she got to die."

Gendo shifted in his seat, dropping his arms to the armrests for once as he leaned back. "It's better than an outright replacement of the girl. The soul might be transferable, and the memories backed up and then uploaded, but it's not perfect. The personality is off. Sometimes the memories don't work right. You've seen it."

Kozo nodded as a loud cheer shot up from the bridge crew as a fourth harpoon landed.

"Activating the winch system!"

The massive motors began to hum as they powered the crank wheels that slowly began to draw in the slack on the cables that led out to the sea and the churning waves. Rei readied another harpoon, the computers tracking the frenzied movements of the massive Angel, far larger than any of the ones they had faced before, barring the Fifth's super massive crystalline structure, which was still being worked on. As the computer chimed the cheerful tone of target acquisition, Rei fired again, dispassionately watching it sail out to sink into white flesh.

The hum of the motors was lost as the storm began in earnest, the howling winds and driving rain drowning out all other sounds. Thunder rolled as lightning cracked across the skies. Rei was only marginally aware that the technicians who had been outside monitoring the winch systems retreating indoors as typhoon force winds sent people and unsecured objects flying. She fired another harpoon at the Angel's growing bulk, only to gasp in surprise and pain as a yellow hexagonal field flashed into view, the massive harpoon bouncing off of it and arcing up and finally back into Unit-00's gut.

"AT FIELD DETECTED!" a tech screamed in horror as the massive, leering and grossly disfigured face of the fish like Angel surfaced. It's brow was knobby and broken, bone growths distorting the once smooth visage. Several new eyes had joined the original two for a total of four on each side, glowing with a sickening yellowish light, glared out from under the knobby protrusions. It's mouth was just as Asuka remembered, vast and filled with teeth.

The blue Evangelion raised a shaking hand to fire the harpoon gun one handed, the other wrapped around the shaft of the metal shaft sticking out of it's stomach. The gun fired, the force causing Unit-00's radius analog to fracture, but the harpoon sailed straight and true into the face of the Angel, only to be reflected by a flash of yellow.

The Angel's mouth opened wide, and Asuka shuddered involuntarily, hearing in her mind it's horrible keening wail. It had done that just before it had claimed her Unit-02's leg for a snack. What happened next caused everyone watching with one exception to gape in horror.

Red light flashed suddenly at the center of it's mouth, and the all too familiar cross of light and fire engulfed Unit-00. As the pilot shrieked in pain, Asuka's eyes flicked from the main screen to the synchronization display, and then narrowed in confusion. The girl's score was still sitting at thirty percent. Yes, she would feel some pain, but it shouldn't be anything that would elicit such a gut wrenching scream, harpoon in the belly or not.

Kozo, never taking his eyes off the screen as Unit-00 stumbled around trying to load the gun one handed, kept his voice low as he bent down next to Gendo.

"We may need to try Asuka in Unit-01. Rei is not going to hold up out there much longer. If Asuka can get it to move even a little, she can help distract it until it's been beached."

Inside her Entry Plug, Rei gritted her teeth as she forced both arms to lift the gun, ignoring the waves of pain that her brain was telling her were shooting up her arm. Not waiting for the targeting computer, she sent her Evangelion forwards into a stumbling charge, extending her own AT Field as she fired the gun, noting with a sudden stab of satisfaction as the barbed metal sank deep into one of the eyes, spraying the face of Unit-00 with it's blood.

The Angel jerked it's head back in reflex, screaming again as fire once more engulfed the blue cyborg.

Gendo stared at the screen, and then nodded. He stood, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "Pilot Soryu, report to the Evangelion cages and prepare to sortie in Unit-01. Dr. Akagi-" Gendo's words trailed off as he stared in horror at the screen as the Angel jerked it's head again, the massive cables flying about chaotically.

Two of them caught Unit-00, sending it tumbling to the ground, and then dragging it towards the Angel as it struggled against the winches. The audio pickups on the external sensors had been muted due to the overpowering sounds of the storm, but had they been on, the twanging sound of cables snapping filled the air as the Angel screamed in triumph as it dived down into the ocean, taking Unit-00 with it, one hand jerking helplessly above the waves momentarily before being taken under.

The base shook violently, sending Asuka scrambling for a hand hold to steady herself as another tech yelled out in a panic, pointing at his screen. "Unit-01's activated!" The base shook again as an inhuman roar echoed and reverberated throughout the entirety of the Geo-Front, an unholy scream from another world and time.

In the shelters, people huddled closer together, even with those they did not know; a genetically imprinted reflex, an ancient callback to the days of when early man huddled around the fire at night, seeking shelter against the howls and cries of the things that hunted in the night.

On the surface, animals for miles around whimpered and cowered in their hiding spots. All were as prey animals to the behemoth that screamed it's rage to the heavens.

Under the waves, the Angel felt the approach of the second Evangelion. In her Entry Plug, Rei's eyes widened in fear.

"It's on the surface! Unit-01's on the surface!"

Dr. Akagi ignored the main screen, staring only at the tech's screen, showing the empty cage, broken restraints slowly sinking down into the LCL-coolant mixture. She kept muttering something under her breath that Asuka couldn't quite make out.

Gendo and Kozo stood stock still as the MAGI shifted the main display to show the purple titan charging through the city towards the beach, howling it's bowel clenching scream all the while.

Author's Notes:

A big thank you to Cryptic Mirror for her recommendation on the Tvtropes page!


	18. Chapter 18

I own nothing! It's all owned by Gainax!

A big thanks to Squire of Gothos for pre-reading and editing!

As Evangelion Unit-01 tore a path of destruction through Tokyo-3 to the beach, the myriad wheels that constituted the mind of Gendo Ikari were spinning, and spinning **fast**. People might fear him, people might hate him, and some (misguided fools) might try to use him, but all had to admit in the end that the man could think fast on his feet and had a talent for turning a bad situation into something that at least resembled victory.

**Gendo Ikari Fact #56: Gendo Ikari does not panic, fear anything, or worry about things. Gendo Ikari is the source of all panic fear and worry in the world. There is no monster hiding under the bed, because Gendo Ikari is under the bed.**

Ignoring the strangling noises of terror escaping his second in command, he raised his voice so the others could hear him over the wailing alarms and panicked cries of his underlings to restore order to his kingdom. Contrary to popular belief, he was not immune to fear or panic, but he held himself to a level of control that made Buddhist monks look like decadent party goers that exulted in excess. But he was still human, and sometimes he was more shocked than normal, and let the mask slip.

"Dr. Akagi, initiate the Gomorrah Protocol, and then target the entrance to the bay with whatever is left of the self defense missile systems, and empty the stores. Drive the Angel to shore, and deny it escape to deeper waters. Unit-00 is outfitted with the E-Type equipment, but Unit-01 is not. It cannot operate under water. Attempt to contact both Pilots, and inform them of the missile strikes. Once Gomorrah activates, reestablish sensor capabilities on the surface as soon as possible, and ensure that there are at least two umbilical cables available for use." Though he spoke loudly, there was not even a hint of emotional tremor in his tone.

Dr. Akagi hesitated, staring up at the imposing figure standing atop his tower like a preacher from a pulpit, preaching fire and brimstone. "The Gomorrah Protocol? Are-"

Gendo interrupted her, saying "The Gomorrah Protocol, Dr. Akagi. Now." He was in no mood, now more than normal, especially with the current circumstances, to tolerate people not doing what they were supposed to. Which was, of course, doing whatever it was that he told them to.

"Yes Sir." She turned to the technician next to her and began relaying the instructions as others attempted to raise the pilots.

Kozo turned to Gendo, who didn't give him a chance to voice his worries or questions. "We need to give him some room to play in, and I don't want SEELE finding out about this. Gomorrah will buy us some time at least, and we can blame it on the Angel. It's already shown abilities here that it didn't in the first battle, and the fact that this battle is happening at all is a deviation from the norm."

The graying sub-commander turned to watch the main screen again, his face taught with worry. "At least we know with certainty how he'll react at Impact. The Demon has awakened, at last. Your updated plan has worked, at least as far as that's concerned.

Gendo shook his head as he sat down, ignoring the hustle and bustle occurring below them as they carried out his orders. "No, the Beast hasn't awoken. This is just the Berserker, and it's still just waking up. This isn't sustainable, not yet. Without an enemy on which to slate his rage and blood-thirst, he will loose steam and grind to a halt. We need a way to get him to the Angel. The missiles should keep it close to shore, but it's no guarantee of it getting within arms reach of Unit-01." He watched as an overlay on the main screen announced the activation of the Gomorrah Protocol, and then as one, all of the screens went dark as the external sensors went offline. "Things are moving faster than they should with both of them. I don't need displays like this occurring every time an Angel attacks." His frown deepened as he settled by habit into his normal position of slightly leaning forwards against the table with his fingers steepled in front of his face. "Also, send someone to find the men who were **supposed** to take him into protective custody. How does a crippled and drugged boy just coming out of a coma get all the way to the cages and into an Evangelion?"

Despite the terrible grimness of the situation, Kozo had to laugh at the statement's absurdity. "He's your son, Gendo." he pointed out with a dark chuckle. "Would you let something like the fact that you are merely missing a leg keep you from rescuing the woman you love? You're always telling me how the boy is like you. We probably should have expected something like this."

A small grin, unseen to all, flashed in and out of existence on his face as the base shook again as the missiles that made up the Gomorrah Protocol began to launch. "Perhaps. But then, it means that we must ensure that he does not find out about the particulars of the scenario. He's gotten quite good at shooting, and if he finds out what we are about, I doubt that he would miss me."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka watched Dr. Akagi as she hurried about, shouting orders and typing commands into one of the MAGI terminals herself. While she was extremely curious about what constituted the Gomorrah Protocol, and why her Sempai didn't want to use it, she knew that now was not the time to make a nuisance of herself by getting in the way. With the Prototype Evangelion lost under the waves, tethered to the massive Angel, and the Test Evangelion apparently on a rampage up above, the situation was dire, since she would be unable to take her Unit-02 up to resolve this mess as currently the leg wasn't anywhere near strong enough to support the weight of the massive giant.

So as she watched the hustle and bustle of the frantic techs as some tried to make contact with the pilots, her eyes caught the still form of the Commander. He was sitting now that he had issued his orders, and he looked as if he was unmoved by the situation.

He was so unlike his son! That whining, wailing and otherwise unimpressive boy. It seemed strange and unlikely that they could be related. She was sure that if the Commander had been present in the Entry Plug with her on the ship, they wouldn't have lost a limb to the Angel. And even if they had, she was sure that he wouldn't have thrown up in her hair. She giggled softly to herself, clamping a hand over her mouth to hide the sound as the thoroughly ridiculous mental image of the man standing on the ship's deck, his arms crossed and glaring the Angel into submission. But why had he picked his son to be a pilot, even if he was just the pilot of the Test-Type? He didn't seem to be the sort of man to allow nepotism. However, the way the boy was acting now was at complete odds with the frightened whining child he had been when they first met.

_Why was he roused to battle now? Was it for the same reason why that girl had sequestered herself in his hospital room?_ She frowned as new, unwholesome and unwanted thoughts formed. _Are they an item? That's disgusting! No wonder they had ordered her out of the room; she had probably been doing perverted things with him while he was asleep! Of course, _she mused, _the only person that boring little boy could possibly make it with is a boring little girl. _

Her eyes turned back to the screens, trying to unravel the mess of data that screamed across the displays. Contradictory values flashed erratically on the screens, and her level of confusion only grew as she stared hopelessly at them as the base once again shook, the screens now briefly showing the words 'Gomorrah Protocol' before going dark.

Seeing that Dr. Akagi had come to a rest near her, Asuka caught her attention. "Sempai, what's the Gomorrah Protocol?"

Dr. Akagi sighed, shooting a dark look up to the tower and put a cigarette in her mouth before answering the girl. "It's part of our last ditch defense plan. Gomorrah refers to our EMP missiles. We're going to detonate them over and around Tokyo-3 in order to try to disrupt the Angel's AT Field. It's part of our last ditch arsenal for a reason, though, because it will leave us blind and unable to communicate with the Evangelions, as well as disrupting their AT Fields. We do have EMP proofed sensors in place, but not enough to suit me. There's also a window in which they shut down before Gomorrah initiates and then start back up after the detonation of the warheads, so it's still not a perfect solution." She rolled the cigarette around in her mouth. "In fact, it's not much of a solution at all. Wireless communications will be disrupted for a considerable time, and that's the primary way we communicate with the Evangelions."

Asuka thought about that for a minute. "So, what about Sodom? Is there a Sodom Protocol?"

"That's highly classified, Asuka. Sodom is not supposed to exist." The doctor looked around as Asuka pouted slightly, before bending down close to the redhead's ear. "Sodom is where we launch missiles with salvaged fusion warheads."

Asuka recoiled, horror dawning on her face as the doctor continued. "That's why it's classified. The Angels must be defeated at all costs, Asuka. I'm trusting you to not discuss this with anyone. I think that you can be trusted with this, yes? I think that you're more mature than the other pilots."

Pride blossomed inside the girl's bosom, as she beamed with all the brightness of the Angel's energy weapon, nodding vigorously. "Of course I can be trusted with this, Sempai! I won't let you down!"

What Dr. Akagi had not told the girl was that the enemies the Sodom and Gomorrah Protocols were designed to counter and defeat were not Angelic ones, but terrestrial foes. As terrible as these two options might be, they were nothing but pale shadows compared to the Revelations Protocol, which constituted the Commander's scorched earth option. There was no way that she would discuss that with the girl, no matter how bright and eager she was. Not yet, anyways.

"External Sensors coming back online! Weapons systems reactivating!" The mousy tech shouted out as the main screen flickered back to life, showing the stormy beachfront. "Missile systems are back on-line!"

Ritsuko reached over the tech to put a key into a small, almost unnoticeable lock on the terminal and twisted. "Tell them to launch everything we've got left in the stores." she said, straightening back up as the tech typed away into the computer.

Asuka frowned as the main display cycled through different cameras, trying to locate the Angel and the Evangelions, but all the available cameras showed was an empty beach and raging seas. Her eyes narrowed as the others watching began to voice the question burning in her mind. _Where did that idiot go?_

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Under the waves, tethered to the Angel by the very tools she had hoped to destroy it with, Rei tried to ignore the inhuman screams of the Angel and the just as horrific roars of Unit-01. She looked at the display, trying to think and take stock of her assets and options. The arm that had broken under the stress of firing the modified harpoon gun had already healed, so she had use of both arms. The harpoon lodged in Unit-00's gut was going to be an issue, but she would not be able to remove it without making the injury worse. There was a limit to how much the system could self repair, after all. There was a sudden jerking sensation as the power cable was ripped from Unit-00, and the five minute counter appeared in the corner of one eye. Her jaw set and anger burning in her eyes, she set to work. This Angel had taken Ikari's leg due to the inadequacies of Pilot Soryu, and she needed to balance that equation. While any actions of clean mathematical retribution against the pilot would most likely be frowned upon, she was free to take exponential vengeance against the Angel.

She twisted around to grab ahold the cables that connected her to the Angel. Engaging the turbines attached to her legs, she crawled her way along the cables to the Angel's side as it tried to shake her off.

Grabbing ahold of one harpoon, she punched her other hand deep into the white flesh, her AT Field helping her to penetrate the Angel's side. Grasping onto a bone, she braced herself and twisted the fist inside of the Angel, causing the keening wail to intensify to ear splitting levels. A look of satisfaction spread across her features, but she was not finished. With a tight grin, she ripped her fist out, bringing the broken bone with it. Reversing her grip on, she applied Shinji's favored tactic of using the Angel's own body parts against them. It did seem to be a strategy that worked, after all. She stabbed down with the sharp point of the bone over and over, carving out chunks of flesh as she tried to dig her way to the core. When the bone finally broke, she punched her fist back into the Angel, in an attempt to acquire a new weapon.

Gaghiel was not going to take this abuse without response, however. Twisting around, it sped towards the surface, leaping out impossibly high, turning to come splashing down atop it's attacker. Rei gasped in shock as the arm broke again as she lost her hold on the harpoon, causing her to bounce against the Angel's flank. White flesh bubbled around her, regenerating and healing even as the angel expelled her from it, and it swam off into the dark waters to spin back around, opening it's toothy maw wide as it made ready to swallow her.

Not being the most graceful of things on dry land, to say nothing of being underwater, if Rei tried to swim away using the Evangelion itself, she would have failed. The massive cyborg was far from being buoyant, because while it resembled the human form, the comparative densities were extremely off, the cybernetic implants and armor weighed it down immensely. The E-Type equipment, however, was made to not only allow the Evangelion to operate better underwater, but to act as the primary movement system as well. Knowing that her time was short, she kicked the larger propeller screws mounted to the back of her Evangelion's shoulders into gear and shot directly towards the oncoming Angel, locking her good arm into a spear, focusing her AT Field around it for reinforcement. If she was fast enough, she reasoned that she could hit the core that sat in the back of the Angel's mouth with full force before it could bite down on her.

The kinetic force of several tons of Evangelion moving at high speed smashing into the red orb would probably be enough to shatter it, if the core was of similar strength as the previous Angels. To be certain, the one that had caused them the most work in actually destroying it (other than this one) was the Angel Ramiel, as it had it's core at the center of it's armored shell. But even if the attack failed, she was not worried. Either it would work, and she died when/if it exploded (or she was rescued by the search teams and salvage craft, which she deemed unlikely), or she would die in the attempt. Either way, she would see Ikari once more, in this iteration or the next one. As far as that was concerned, it was a good plan, and it probably would have worked.

The flock of missiles slamming down into the water did exactly what they were supposed to do; disrupt, damage, and destroy. Shock waves slammed into both combatants, sending them off course and bouncing them around in the water, in addition to peppering them with shrapnel and heat. Angry tears mixed unnoticed with LCL as the plug finally went dark, and the last thing Rei saw was the orange blossom of an underwater fireball smashing into her as the power went out.

Alone in the gray, featureless tube, locked into place by the seat's restraints, Rei looked up to the top of the plug as the Evangelion began to slowly sink, still buffeted by explosions.

_How long will it take me to die? s_he wondered, beginning to run the numbers through her mind. _Hypothesis: With an undamaged Evangelion, the maximum rated depth with E-Type Equipment Load Out Alpha is one kilometer. The Bay of Tokai is five hundred meters at it's deepest point. With the current estimated amount of damage to the Evangelion..._

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

The vengeful giant strode through the water up to it's waist, unable to go further in. He screamed his frustrations into the wind again, as the sky overhead burst into flame. The glaring visage of Unit-01 turned to the sky as the specially designed warheads detonated, causing massive pulses of electromagnetic waves to spread out, disrupting and destroying the electrical circuits over a wide area over Tokyo-3 and the surrounding countryside. Anything not shielded to be proof against such interference was fried, and the entire area over Tokyo-3 went dark. Even in space, spy satellites became multi-million dollar piles of junk as the orbital missiles detonated and the fluctuating magnetic fields played havoc with their circuitry.

The Evangelions, like the Angels so far encountered, were not effected by the EMP weaponry outside their communications suite, Dr. Akagi's explanation to Asuka being a complete fallacy in order to explain the existence of the emergency protocols.

Bored with the irrelevant light show, Unit-01 growled as it turned back to the shore, picking up one of the harpoons in it's massive hand, turning back to scream again at the raging sea.

It was rewarded when Gaghiel and Unit-00 surfaced above the waves, locked in combat and ignoring everything but each other. It waded back into the sea, bellowing it's challenge to the Angel, and screamed in rage as the blue Evangelion was taken back under. Unit-01 roared in frustration and hatred, it's anger at being ignored fanning the flames of it's rage even higher.

'Look at Me!' it seemed to say as it screamed inarticulately, as it slammed it's arms and fists down into the water, straining it's legs to move forwards. 'Don't you ignore Me!' the thing seemed to bellow, rage burning in the elongated diamond eye-slots of it's helmet. It was all hot rage, anger and hate, burning for the attention of it's foe even as the boy that sat upon the Throne of the Soul inside the Entry Plug screamed for recognition from the one called his Father.

But hate was not the only thing that drove this weapon, the God created by Man in the image of Man, for there was also love in the heart of the boy. And as numerous members of the original Project E had pointed out, long ago in the early stages of planning when NERV was still only in the minds of Ikari and Fuyutsuki, people (and many, many animals) would do terribly bloody and violent things in the name of those they loved.

Shinji Ikari, a young man, a high school student and Evangelion Pilot might not know that he loved one Rei Ayanami, a young woman, a (mad) scientist and Evangelion Pilot, but the Berserker did. And the Berserker was not about to be stopped by a mere issue of physics.

If the water was what was keeping it from the fight, then the water needed to go.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei and Shinji were lying in bed together nestled up close, legs intertwined and his arms wrapped around her waist. Pale moonlight drifted in through his room's window, playing over their naked forms, showing the crumpled sheets and discarded clothing in piles on the floor. There was no sound but the sounds of them breathing and the beating of their hearts. She squirmed around in his grasp, turning so she could look into his eyes, and she ran her fingers through his hair. "I am cold, Ikari. Please keep me warm."

Squeezing her tightly to him, he nodded. "Maybe I should get more blankets."

"Perhaps. But I do not want to let go." She inched her way up towards his face, the warmth of his breath tickling her slightly. _It is not... unpleasant. Hypothesis: His lips applied to mine will increase my body temperature, due to a chemical reaction and physical arousal. The emotional state of love, or intense physical attraction and desire. _She closed her eyes as she moved to close in the last few inches, aware that numerous case studies suggested this course of action when about to engage in a kiss, when something cold and wet hit her face. Confused, she opened one eye, and saw tears running down his face. _Why is he crying? There is no need to be sad. No need for tears. Perhaps it is like with the fifth Angel? He was crying when he opened the Entry Plug._

He spoke again, his voice frantic and oddly pitched. "Hurry, get that stretcher over here!"

She frowned slightly. _I do not want him to be saying things like this before I loose conciseness. I wanted to think about kissing him._

She opened her eyes, the simple task seemingly impossible, to stare into the worried face of a man in a black rain jacket, trying to put an oxygen mask over her mouth. She tried to struggle, but found that there was no energy at all in her limbs. Relaxing, her head rolling to one side, a blasted landscape met her eyes, burning wreckage and debris everywhere, the dancing flames giving everything a hellish cast to it. Rain continued to fall, although the lightning had ceased.

"Ikari" she breathed, trying to find the boy's Evangelion, but she could not from her current vantage point, and it was too hard to move. She could neither grasp why she felt so tired, nor explain the dull pain that she felt throughout her body.

The man said something else to her, obviously trying to keep her awake. _Of course. They are afraid that if I fall asleep that I will go into a coma. But why are they so worried about me? It is Ikari that they need to worry about. I wish he hadn't interrupted my dream. It would have been a pleasant last thought..._

Rei closed her eyes as blackness overtook her, still wishing that her lasts thoughts would have been of Ikari's kiss.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei opened her eyes to a familiar ceiling, complete with it's cracked tile. She sat up, looking around, oddly disappointed to find that there was no one present. It would have been pleasant to find Ikari there, hopefully sleeping.

_He always looks so nice when he is sleeping, _she thought absently as she checked herself for injuries, pleased to note the absence of slings or casts. There was only a residual soreness present in her body, and she was still very tired, despite having just woken up from an indeterminate amount of sleep.

_He probably did not escape the battle unharmed. There was a large amount of wreckage in the surrounding area, which suggests that the Angel detonated, either on it's own, or through external means. In addition, he was already in a state that ensured they would keep him in his own room._

_It is strange that they would have allowed him to pilot, given his medical status. The timing was extremely fortuitous, but I do not understand how they managed to get him suited up and launched in time once it was apparent that I was being dragged underwater. Also, his appearance on the battlefield was heralded by the screams of the Evangelion. It does not scream, except during the bouts of extremely high synchronization with Ikari, what she calls the 'Berserker Mode'. Does this mean that he once again managed an infinite synch score? Perhaps Pilot Soryu was unable to synchronize with Unit-01, despite her reported boasts of being the 'best' pilot. If that is the case, then they would have had no choice but to place him into the Evangelion. _

The smallest of frowns made an appearance on her features, looking out of place on her normally placid expression. _I have failed the Commander again. I failed during the activation test with Unit-00, and was unable to be sortied in the fights with the Third and Fourth Angels, and was only able to act as a shield bearer in the fight with the Fifth. Now, against the Sixth, I have also proven to be inadequate to the task. I must focus more of my time and energy into learning how to obtain an infinite synchronization ratio with my Evangelion if I am to have any hope of helping defeat the Angels. The Commander cannot be pleased with me and my performance. I must work harder to improve my piloting skill. I must not fail him._

She looked to the door as it opened and Dr. Akagi stepped through, pushing a cart before her.

Rei resisted the urge to sigh loudly. As much as she did not wish to deal with the doctor, there was nothing to be gained by letting her know this. Rei had so far been unable to find any evidence that suggested that the woman was not operating under the guidance of the Commander. As such, she often relayed information from him. While she had not been entirely honest with the Commander a few times in the recent past, and had attempted to circumvent his orders on the flimsiest of rationalizations (He had, after all, said that the medical and security staff would be told that she could not see Ikari. He had not told her that she wasn't actually allowed to do so), it would not be wise for her to potentially further anger the Commander by ignoring his some times proxy and mouthpiece.

Knowing this did not make it any easier for her to put up with listening to her Nemesis talk.

"Ah, Rei! You're awake! How do you feel?", her tone almost annoyingly chipper.

Rei stared at her, trying to decided on the best answer to the query. _I feel like conducting proximity experiments on Ikari. I feel like conducting tranquilizer experiments on you. _Even though both statements were valid responses to the doctor's query, Rei doubted that the woman wanted (or needed) to hear them.

"Tired." came the soft reply, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Well, no doubt. You did give us a scare there for a little while, but you pulled through in the end with nothing more serious than a case of major fatigue. Now, I've got some good news and some bad news. What do you want to hear first?"

Rei looked at the doctor, trying to figure out what was normally requested first. She had heard the expression before, as it was used many times by various people in her age group and above, but she had never given it much attention, nor had she tabulated the various responses to it.

_What metric is she using to determine the quality of the news? Both terms are nebulous and largely relative. An amputated limb is hardly seen as a 'good' thing, but when compared to death, there is a definite population preference towards amputation. Similarly, disobeying the Commander is 'bad' but not being able to see Ikari is more so. Good things are normally celebrated, while bad things normally require additional actions to compensate for them. Therefore, I should elect to receive the 'bad' news first, as to gain addition time to plan and react to it._

"Bad."

"Shinji is going to be in solitary confinement for quite some time."

That was indeed very bad news, as far as the blue haired girl was concerned. In fact, it rated up there with being used to suddenly decelerate particles on her sliding scale of 'bad' things.

She looked at the doctor expectantly, waiting for more information. With that as a baseline for 'bad', almost anything else that could possibly happen would most certainly be labeled 'good'. She suspected that being told that she would be living with the doctor would be considered comparatively good news, when using that metric.

"Good." she stated, wondering what condition Shinji was in, and what he had done to merit a stay in the detention block.

"Both Units 00 and 02 are almost completely repaired, so our ability to intercept and eliminate the Angels will be unimpeded. Also, on a side note, since you were asking about it before this mess got started, Shinji's cybernetic knee was installed successfully, and he is taking well to his new leg."

_How long was I asleep? Was I placed into a coma as well? What purpose would that serve? I appear to have all of my limbs. Even if there was a point where my survival was in doubt, there would be no need for alarm, as all that is required is to decant a new body and transfer the image into it. _

"Why is Pilot Ikari in solitary? When last I saw him, he was in a coma in the hospital wing. Also, how was the Angel defeated? Was it Pilot Soryu, in Unit-01, as per the emergency plan? I do not remember what happened."

_As if Pilot Soryu could defeat the Angel. **I** know that it was Ikari. No one else could do such a thing, but it will be interesting to see if she will admit the truth. If she lies to me about this, what else is she lying to me about?_

Dr. Akagi looked strangely at the girl, even as she uncapped one of the many syringes lying on her cart. "You don't remember what happened? What's the last thing you recall?"

Rei did not wince as the hypodermic needle pierced her arm. She never winced at such things. It was a waste of time and calories, twisting and contorting one's facial muscles in response to a tiny needle in one's flesh.

"I was attempting to battle the Angel underwater, when missiles threw me off course. My power ran out, and I sat in the Entry Plug until I lost consciousness." _You do not need to know that I was thinking of Ikari. It is not relevant to you. _She looked at the doctor as another needle entered her arm. "How long was I asleep?"

"Oh, not long, only a few days. So, that's all you remember? Nothing else?" _Like calling for him when the medics dragged you from Unit-00? Nothing like that?_ Ritsuko thought to herself, as she plunged a third needle with professional quickness into the pale girl's arm.

"No."

"Ah, well, it appears that when he woke up, it was just as the Angel was spotted. When he found out that you were the only one fighting it, as Unit-02 was still not mission capable, he freaked out and somehow managed to get himself into Unit-01, and activated it."

_He was not fielded as an emergency measure by the Commander? He did this all on his own? _Inwardly, she reeled with shock at the news. While she knew that the boy seemingly disliked his father, and piloting the Evangelion, and fighting in general, she also had plentiful evidence that he felt something towards her, even if it was just an extreme protectiveness, and an agreeable nature towards suggestions to partake of cuddling experiments when inebriated (as did she, it seemed). He was very protective of her, but for him to go and launch himself, apparently only with just the information that she was fighting alone, well, that was a discovery of massive import. More research would have to be done on the events of the fight and their time-line. But this news also raised new questions that could be answered immediately by present test subjects.

"Why is Pilot Ikari in solitary confinement if he was successful in the destruction of the Angel?"

"Because he launched without proper authorization, and because he tased his security escort."

_He did **what**? _

Taking the used needles and placing them within the sharps container, Dr. Akagi then handed Rei a new vial of pills. "Well, take these once a day with water before bed. We'll keep you here tonight for observation, but I'm sure that you'll be back home on the surface tomorrow. Do you have any questions?"

"I need to see the video recordings of the fight, in order to further my own combat abilities against the Angels."

Dr. Akagi smiled at her, hands on her hips, studying the girl. _Oh, do you now? Or do you just want to see what all your little 'boyfriend' did on his rampage? Well, I'm afraid that you're out of luck on that matter. _"Unfortunately, we had to initiate the Gomorrah Protocol, in order to keep SEELE in the dark about what was going on. By the time our systems came back on line, the battle had moved to outside the view of the surviving sensors."

Rei said nothing more, and Dr. Akagi left the girl to her thoughts.

_If they initiated the Gomorrah Protocol to hide Ikari's actions from SEELE, then it means that he was rampaging, and thus not controllable. This does suggest that he deployed Unit-01 on his own initiative., which also is supported by the roars of Unit-01, which had only previously been present during the so called 'Berserker' mode. How will they explain to SEELE the effects of the EMP weapons? It could possibly be blamed on the Angel. The battles with this Angel already had been unorthodox, and deviated significantly from the previous encounters. With the already considerable deviation from the past Angels, what is one more ability? After all, if they cannot alter their mission parameters, they would be useless without support from other entities._

That thought struck up both fear and interest in her. _Could it be that the Angels learn from each failed attempt? This is the second Angel to hide it's core within it's body, and both times the Angel was harder to destroy. This Angel is also the first one to have retreated, instead of attacking until it could do so no longer. Will future Angels employ such tactics, and improve upon them?_

_Hypothesis: Each Angel develops itself based off the abilities, successes and failures of each one that comes before. This is somewhat supported in that the Angels have the ability to regenerate at a tremendous rate, and can learn from their successes and failures in the immediate battle, either with UN of JSSDF forces or the Evangelions. Other than waiting to see how the next Angels act, I do not thing that there is any way for me to test this. I should talk to the MAGI, and see if this has occurred to them. _

_I will need to speak to Ikari, and find out what he remembers of the fight. But... He does not like to discuss such things. I do not think that he will be amicable to the idea of speaking on the issue. But I want know what happened..._

Rei felt new irritation and annoyance blossom within her. The Gomorrah Protocol might have hid the fight from SEELE, but it was also working against her. She **had** to see what had transpired, especially now if she was to check the tactical abilities of future Angels against the past fights, in addition to her own ongoing research into Ikari's hypothetical ability to become his Evangelion. But at direct odds with this was a new need and wish to not see him upset, something that she told herself was only because she did not want to skew future experiments of physical proximity with him, as he was the only person in her age group that was not already biased against her.

_He must not have been badly injured if at all in the fight, if he was injured at all. Especially if they already have the new knee and leg attached to him, and he is at the same time being currently incarcerated. The last time that they did that, they waited until he was cleared from the medical wing. I wonder what the specifications of his new knee and leg are? I will need more data on the fight in order to determine if the loss of his leg interfered at all with his piloting. _

_I wonder if I request leniency for him from the Commander if he will allow him to go free? She did say that he was going to remain in solitary for 'quite some time', which, while an imprecise measurement of time, does seem to be used in cases where an extended period of time is expected or experienced. What would be appropriate arguments for his early release? He did defeat the Angel, which is why NERV exists. He allowed for the successful rescue of NERV personnel that he does not know to be immediately replaceable. He allowed for the successful recovery of vital NERV equipment, namely Unit-00. She even said that it is almost completely repaired. Surely this all out weighs tasing some Section 2 agents?_

She closed her eyes but sleep refused to come. Unsure what was bothering her, Rei looked around the room again, not knowing what she was looking for. At the base of her skull, buried in the deep recesses of her mind, something screamed out that there was something missing. Closing her eyes and collapsing back onto the pillow, she decided to ignore it and began instead to think about a shirtless Ikari embracing her.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"This is unacceptable, Ikari." the monolith labeled only as SEELE 05 intoned, the distorted voice still able to sound irate despite the heavy modulation of the anonoyminity filters.

"This is a disaster. The Angels are to be defeated, not allowed to escape and then return to cause more destruction. The costs to the already damaged defense systems of Tokyo-3 are almost incalculable."

"Worse still is the damage done to the Evangelions, and the Pilots. They are two halves of the same coin. One will not work without the other, Ikari. With two Evangelions damaged and undeployable, and one Pilot damaged and unable to pilot, if another Angel were to strike, it would be the end of all things."

"The Third Child is perfectly capable of piloting. The surgery went well, with no complications, and the Pilot is responding well to physical therapy. Evangelion Unit-01 stands fully ready to defeat any Angel that may come."

Surprise was evident in SEELE 07's voice. "Why then has this information been withheld from us? If he has been released from medical, the report should have been filed."

"He has not been released from medical; he is still in the initial stages of physical therapy and remains at NERV." Gendo reached out to push his glasses back up onto his face. Having pushed off the meeting with SEELE until after the Angel had shown itself had been a risky choice, as the old men were not happy at all with Gendo. However, they could not publicly fault him for the excuse, as he had thrown all of NERV into a full throttle search for the Angel,in addition to making repairs to the Evangelions and the external defenses of Tokyo-3.

So far, his decision to invoke the Gomorrah Protocol seemed to have had the desired effect, at least they publicly accepted the lies that ran through the reports delivered to them about the new abilities of the Sixth Angel, Gaghiel. Gendo knew however, that there was the very real danger and possibility of them knowing about the actual events of the battle. He was still waiting on news from his Agents close to the old men to finish their reports. Until then, he would have to tread more carefully than was normal.

SEELE 01, Lorenz Kiel, the mastermind and progenitor of the plot, spoke up and put an end to the general chatter the conference had devolved into. "At any rate, the next Angel is not due for some time. Ikari, you need to ensure that the Angels are destroyed more efficiently in the future. If you do not, we may consider replacing you as NERV's Commander."

He said nothing in return, even as SEELE 06 made a snide comment about possibly promoting Fuyutsuki. The monoliths disappeared from view, leaving him in darkness. He stood and left the room, passing his second in command without word.

"I expect that the meeting went as we imagined, then." Kozo commented, noting the clenched jaw. "Do you think that they suspect anything? Or have evidence of what actually happened?"

"No. Everything points to them being in the dark as to the true events of the battle."

"Then all is as well as it could be, I suppose. I do have some good news, however. Rei's woken up, and other than not remembering what happened during the fight, she seems to be fine." He paused, taking another glance at his friend. "She did ask after Shinji. Dr. Akagi told her where he was."

"Has she made any efforts to see him?"

"No, she went back to sleep shortly after receiving the medication. But I'm sure that it's only a matter of time before the attempt is made."

"See to it that security knows that she is not to see him." They walked in silence, and neither spoke again until they entered his office. Taking his seat and pulling a report detailing the cleanup progress, Gendo glanced at the older man. "Did she ask about tapes from the battle? If she has no memories of it, I'm sure that she must be interested in finding out what exactly happened."

"She asked after them, but Dr. Akagi informed her that due to the Gomorrah Protocol, there are no records of the fight after the detonation of the missiles."

"Good. Have the MAGI come to a conclusion yet?"

"Dr. Akagi reports that they are still undecided and are withholding judgment at this time."

"I'm not sure if to be worried or comforted by the fact that they find what happened as incomprehensible as we do. Has the security restriction to the files concerning the battle been activated yet?"

"Yes, it's already in place."

Gendo pulled a video still from underneath the paperclip that held the report together, studying it intently, although he held no hopes of divining the answers he sought from it. It showed a storm-ridden sky over the Bay of Tokai, which was strangely empty of water. Two blurred figures, one of purple and the other of white seemed to be locked in battle along the slope of the now dry sea floor.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Frost formed on the metal armor of the Evangelion Unit-01, The Berserker. Small pieces of ice began to form in the water that surged around it's waist, and rain became sleet as the Evangelion became a massive endothermic engine of death and destruction, ripping the very heat from the environment around it to stoke the fires of it's fury.

With a scream that was the sound of a wailing wind as it passed through the Valley of Shadow of Death, the Berserker threw it's arms up high into the air and slammed them down again onto the water, it's fists trailing icy fog through the rapidly cooling air.

Yellow hexagons flashed into and out of existence in the second of impact, and the water inside the bay became as the same icy fog, and then vanished, dissipating quickly into the warm air. At the mouth of the bay, a wall of water stood unmoving, a line delineating the extent of the Berserker's AT Field. Had there been any sea life that had not fled before the approach of the Angel, and then that of Unit-01, the dry seabed would have been scattered with imminently surprised creatures. As it was, Unit-00 crashed down onto the sloping ground to roll to the bottom, and the shocked Angel did likewise.

However, Gaghiel was no mere fish, it's resemblance to one non-withstanding. It was an Angel, and as such the mere alteration of the environment in which it had been was of no real concern to it. It wasn't even entirely present in this dimension, it belonging to a classification of beings so far removed from man that under normal circumstances, there would have been no hope for the puny offspring of Lilith to battle it. Massive flippers shifted as bones stretched and broke into new configurations. As it got to it's feet, it looked up with a toothy grin and glowing eyes just in time to see the Berserker crash into it, harpoons held up to the raging sky.

Fire burned in the eyes of Unit-01 as it bellowed in triumph as it wrapped it's legs around the Angel in a bizarre approximation of a choke-hold, raining blows down into it's flesh with the harpoons, ripping chunks of pale flesh out each time it raised it's hands back up to strike again.

Screaming in rage at this indignity and affront to it's being, Gaghiel staggered back and forth, attempting to beat it's attacker off of it. The now all too familiar cross shaped pillars of light that seemed to be a common weapon of the Angels erupted once more as it's cries became plaintive. Fires began to spread on the beach where the pillars hit buildings and equipment, and large sections of rocky sand became blackened glass.

Tiring of the ineffectualness of it's attacks, Unit-01 allowed itself to be thrown from the Angel, coming into a crouch a few hundred feet from the leviathan. Enraged, the Angel unleashed it's energy weapon again, scoring three direct hits on the Evangelion as it began to run back towards it, seemingly uncaring about how the paint bubbled and burned, the smoke and flames not affecting the frost that was now several inches thick in places along it's armor.

A fourth cross hit Unit-01, this time in face, sending it crashing backwards, head over heels into the ground, gouging out a trench in the soft earth. Unseen by both combatants, the wall of water shook as if it were a door that someone had slammed their shoulder up against. Ripples were visible to the naked eye as they traveled across the surface of the wall.

The keening wail returned now in full force, as Gaghiel was sure that victory over this new foe was now near. It began to make it's way over to where the titan lay, it's gigantic plodding pace eating up the distance. It opened it's mouth wide, teeth flexing outwards, as it made ready to consume the stricken giant.

Fire burning in one eye and blood streaming from the ruined socket of the other, the Berserker howled again as it rose up from the earth, hands outstretched greedily for the red orb that sat in back of the enormous mouth. Realizing the danger, Gaghiel clamped it's mouth down suddenly on the arms, teeth piercing through the armor and the flesh that lay beneath all along the the upper arms of the Evangelion. Blood spurted up high into the air as the Angel's jaws shifted and clenched, Unit-01 held trapped in it's mouth as surely as a mouse in a cat's jaws.

Strangely, the Berserker made no noise as it twitched, the entirety of it's body convulsing minutely. The wall of water shook again, yellow hexagons flashing in and out of view, before vanishing altogether. With a roar that would later be described by witnesses like that of an avalanches, the sea reclaimed the bay, washing over the titans, still locked together in that grim embrace. The men and women who had ventured outside in an attempt to find out what was happening looked first at each other, and then with growing dread at the rolling waves.

It came suddenly, the cross of light shooting up high into the sky, this pillar larger than any of the others unleashed by the Angel in it's fight with the Evangelions. Water exploded up and became steam mixed with smoke, quickly becoming an icy fog that hung over the sea. Fire and burning chunks of fish-flesh began to rain down out of the sky.

Then, like a primordial god of old, Unit-01 rose up out of the sea, Unit-00 held in it's arms in the manner of a groom with his bride. Water poured down off of the two cyclopes in great rivulets, doing as much to drive the men and women back into their shelters as the earth shaking steps of Unit-01, as the beach turned into mud.

Frantic calls were being made over secure wire lines from the beachhead back to the Command Deck of NERV Central, sending news of the apparent outcome of the battle. Emergency crews were dispatched, and Tokyo-3 began to shift into a stage four alert as damage control crews surfaced from below to determine the extent of the damage wreaked upon the fortress city.

With a strange gentleness at complete odds with the terrible violence it had just meted out, Unit-01 placed it's blue companion on the ground, before arching it's back up to the sky, arms spread apart to howl it's victory into the sky, as if daring a response from the heavens above.

The fiery glow faded from it's good eye, and the titan crashed to earth, it's internal batteries expended.

From the moment of activation to the time it came to rest at the feet of Unit-00, it had been operating on the internal batteries. It had been ten minutes, from start up to shut down.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji Ikari had a migraine headache. It was the first time in his life that he had one, and had he more experience with them, he would have been much more appreciative of the fact that he was stuck in solitary confinement, sitting there alone in the darkness, silence wrapped around him like a blanket. Even the sound of his own breathing seemed too loud, as did the sound of his pulse, felt with each throb of his brain at the front of his skull. He was also glad of the cool metal floor, as he rested his forehead against it.

As he drifted in and out of blessed sleep and the relief it brought him, he had no idea as to how long he had been down here in NERV's dungeon, and for the most part he didn't care, the feeling of spikes being driven into his eyes erasing all other thoughts from his mind. He remembered being told that Rei was safe, apparently fine with no injuries from the battle more serious than exhaustion and some bruising. He only vaguely recalled waking up with a metal attachment on his leg, and then later a skeletal, metallic leg and foot.

If anyone had shouted at him over launching Unit-01, he didn't remember it. It probably wouldn't have done any good, anyways. The door opened suddenly, and he winced and turned away from the lights of the corridor. Someone stepped lightly into the room, kneeling down next to his side, rolling up his sleeve. Cool liquid was swabbed onto his arm, just before a sharp pain shot through him as the needle pierced his skin. He winced again as his hair was tousled by a gloved hand, before the unknown person stood and left the room, which was once again plunged into darkness as the door closed.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei found Hikari, Toji and Kensuke crowded around her the moment that she stepped into the classroom. Halting in the doorway, unsure as what to do, she had difficulty hiding her surprise as Hikari grabbed her by the arm and dragged her over to Shinji's desk, seating her in it.

"Rei, are you alright? How's Shinji? What just happened out there?" the class representative asked, her voice low but frantic, waving an arm at the window and the cityscape beyond, where construction crews worked tirelessly and joyfully to rebuild the fortress city.

"I have suffered no permanent damage. Ikari is... Ikari's status is currently classified. As for the battle... it was a very difficult affair."

"What was that horrible scream? We all heard it, even deep in the shelters. I've never been more frightened in my life. Was it the Angel?"

Rei only stared at the girl, who was sitting close to her, her face much nearer than was the norm, mere inches away. _She heard the scream of Unit-01? Where was the Evangelion when it screamed? The shelters are supposed to be sound-proof in addition to protecting against the debris of the battles. If it managed to be overheard inside the shelters, it would have been still some ways from the shore, but I heard it with no problems within Unit-00, underwater, during a storm, while fighting the Angel. I must talk to the MAGI tonight. _

"That information is classified."

Toji put his hand down gently on the desk, drawing Rei's attention to him. Looking straight into her unsettling red eyes, he took a deep breath. "Rei, we're asking because we're worried about Shinji, and about you. Ken still won't say anything about what happened on the ship, but I know that whatever happened, it couldn't have been good. Then, this last battle happens, and you're only now just getting back to class, and the Shin-man's still missing. We know, at least a little," he said, his eyes darting to the other students warily before returning to lock gazes with the strange girl, "what it's like in the cockpit. You feel what happens, and... strange things happen to you when you pilot. I saw the red one, when it came in. It was missing a leg! He was piloting it when it happened, wasn't he?"

Rei shifted slightly in her seat, broadcasting to anyone well practiced in Rei-watching that she was unhappy. She blinked twice, and with the faintest twitch of her eye, she expelled the breath she hadn't been aware that she had been holding.

"He was piloting it, along with the regular pilot. She escaped without harm; he was the only one who suffered. During the last battle... he came to my rescue when the Angel managed to overpower my Evangelion. I am told that he is fine, and suffered no further injury, but he is being held in the detention block at NERV."

Hikari gasped, clearly shocked by the news. The boys had not told her much, nothing really, about the Evangelions, being loathe to tempt fate and invite trouble into their lives. Kensuke breathed a sigh of relief, glad that the secret he had been forced to keep for the past few days was out, and by someone else than him. Toji swallowed hard, not wanting to continue, but now he had more questions to ask. He could, as he had done in the past, simply ignored the issue, but he held himself to a stricter code than that. Shinji needed a friend, and he would be a friend. And friends didn't let friends rot in jail for saving the world, at least in his book they didn't.

"The detention block? What? Why is he there?"

"He tased his security escort and launched Unit-01 by himself, without prior authorization."

Triplet looks of incomprehension locked together, and then turned back to Rei. Hikari found her voice first, and asked the question burning in their minds.

"He did **what**?"

"When he was informed that I was fighting the Angel by myself, due to the damage done to Unit-02, and him being in the medical wing, he assaulted and incapacitated his security escort and managed to gain entry to his Evangelion, and launched himself. He defeated the Angel shortly after engaging it."

"And for that, they locked him up? That's bullshit!"

"No, it is the truth."

"When are they going to release him? Isn't there anything that someone can do?" Hikari asked, even as the boys shook their heads. What could anyone hope to accomplish, going up against the will of the ones who ran the entire city, and fielded monstrous giants with children for pilots as a matter of policy? Who was going to tell them that they couldn't do as they pleased? A group of high schoolers?

Rei confirmed their dour outlook on the situation with a shake of her head. "The order for his incarceration was given by Commander Ikari himself."

"His own father?"

"Yes."

"What about Misato? Surely she can do something! She's the Operations Director! She can't just stand by and let something like this happen!"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato stared at the battered form of Evangelion Unit-01, held in heavy shackles in addition to the normal locking restraints, the crucifix shaped signal terminator plug firmly lodged in the socket that would normally house a normal terminator plug, or the Entry Plug of it's chosen pilot, Shinji Ikari. She turned to her long time friend, Ritsuko Akagi, never taking her eyes from the behemoth.

"Are you sure that it was Shinji? I mean, it wasn't someone else?" she asked, her voice thick disbelief. "I have a hard time seeing him getting the drop on two secrecy service agents, getting all the way up here, and then manually activating and launching his Evangelion. I mean, we're talking about **Shinji**, for crying out loud!"

"It was him. There's no doubt about it. We've got the MAGI's security tapes showing him the entire way up." She scowled, but her tone remained strangely light, considering the situation they were in. "Of course, the only way he was able to get Unit-01 to launch was because we had it prepped on emergency standby status for Asuka, in case we needed to try to field her."

"What about it's weird behavior?"

"What do you mean? The screaming? That's nothing new. It normally does that when it goes into Berserker Mode, you know that."

Misato frowned at the blond doctor, fully turning her face to her, even as Ritsuko ignored her look, industriously studying the report attached to her clipboard. "Yeah, that's pretty freaky, but I'm talking about how come it was able to run for ten minutes with no power?"

"That's impossible, Misato."

"**I know, that's what I'm saying**."

Ritsuko, pulling herself away from the report, turned to give the Operations Director an unamused look. "It didn't run for ten minutes without external power, if that's what you're trying to get at. He obviously hooked up to Rei's cable after it was ejected."

"Witnesses say that it didn't have one when it came out of the water."

"Obviously it had to eject it to go get Unit-00, and more importantly, I think to him, Rei."

"You know, if she doesn't jump his bones after this, I think that he's going to stop rescuing her."

Everyone within earshot of Misato's offhand and slightly off-color comment slapped a palm to their face. Ritsuko, groaning in exasperation, stared at her friend through the spread fingers of the hand plastered to her head. "Are you serious? Did you really just say that?"

"What?" Misato asked, shrugging. "I mean, how much more would a guy have to do for you in order to get you into his bed?" She groaned suddenly herself now, a wince crossing her face. "You know, we still need to give them the talk."

"The Commander has him locked up in solitary, and you're concerned with giving them the talk."

Misato shrugged again, once more seemingly free from worry or care. "I'm not happy about it, but... He did assault his security officers, and anyways, he can't keep him down there forever. Not when he can competently do visceral things to the Angels."

A new pain blossomed in Ritsuko's brain as Misato tried to bludgeon her way through the conversation. "I think you mean 'completely ruin their shit'? If you're going to quote somebody, can you please do it right?"

"What? What'd I say?"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Maya tried not to glare at the red headed girl that was busy typing away at the MAGI terminal. She had been less that enthused to meet the newest addition to the pilot corps, the energetic German girl apparently having done nothing but win praise and adulation from Dr. Akagi while she had been with Captain Katsuragi searching for the she watched the information that flashed across the screen, she did have to grudgingly admit that the girl was good, and had potential.

_I still don't see why she's taken to calling Sempai Sempai so fast. When are we sending her to the school for socialization? The less that she's down here the better. But... she does seem to have earned that degree in her records. And she's truly interested in what's going on and what happened. Maybe it's just that she's so different from Shinji and Rei. Yeah. That's got to be it. I'm just used to the pilots being so introverted, it's a shock seeing someone so full of energy and so outgoing instead._

Maya watched the girl for a few more moments before turning back to her own work, but not before wondering where she had seen that lab-coat before. It wasn't Dr. Akagi's, as she was almost never separated from it, but she was sure that she had seen someone else wearing one around the place before.

Asuka watched the pretty brunette tech out of the corner of her eye as she worked. She had expected the likes of Lieutenants Hyuga and Shigeru to be in plentiful amount, typical technicians the both of them. Completely uninteresting, much like the other two pilots. Excepting, of course, the bizarre behavior of Shinji Ikari in this last battle. But as for Maya Ibuki, well, Asuka was struck by the girl's attractiveness (but not as attractive as her, of course) and the skill that hadn't been over exaggerated as she had thought when Dr. Akagi introduced them.

_She's very good. Almost as good as Sempai is, I think. I can learn much from her too. She looks so young, too! She can't be that much older than I am. Ohh, I wish that I didn't have to start going to that stupid school soon. I'll learn so much more here, than there! What can I learn sitting in a class full of boring, stupid children?_

Her train of thought was interrupted as the MAGI flashed some new data at her, which completely contradicted everything that she had thus far found out in three different ways.

_That's so strange. Even the MAGI don't know what to make of the data feed from Unit-01 during it's rampage. All this data is junk! Why doesn't anything about this whole thing make sense? It's like Unit-01 is nothing at all like my Unit-02, or even Unit-00! Shiesse! Now what?_

As she cursed under her breath and in her head, a new error message flashed on the screen; the MAGI stated that she lacked the necessary security clearance to view the design specs on Unit-01. As she had the clearance on the specs for Unit-02, this new mystery caused her to throw her hands up in the air in frustration. She had also heard mutterings that Unit-01 had run amok above ground for ten minutes without external power, and while she knew it was impossible, with all the other oddities that seemed to revolve around the Test-Type, she wanted to see if it was at least **theoretically** possible.

_After all, _she thought with a grin, _if there was the smallest chance of me being able to do that in __my_ _Unit-02, then I ought to know about it, nicht? And if that dummkopf down in lockup can do something like this, well then so should I. But not that screaming thing. That was a little... too much. _

She shivered slightly, imagining for a second as goosebumps rose on her skin that she could still feel the awful vibrations of that roar in her bones, freezing the marrow. The fact that the thing had even managed to break the jaw locks open was astounding. The heavy duty metal restraints were screwed into the jaws of the Evangelions, clamping them shut. Units-00 and 02 went even farther, with full metal mouth-guards encasing the entirety of the mouth and jaw area, foregoing the stylized bared teeth pattern that adorned Unit-01. It was, as Asuka noticed, yet another difference between it and it's predecessor and successor. But she refused to let this setback keep her down.

And so she keyed a new query into the terminal and began again. No matter how long it took her, she **would** get to the bottom of this mystery. There was nothing that the Great Asuka Langley Soryu could not do or figure out once she put her wonderful mind to it.

Author's Notes:

Helpful: It's M because of stuff that will take place later on in the story. Things will not... be nice.

MoonishMan: They're a little older than before, the robot is that of Jet Alone's design, it's called Prime because there are more. Remote Synch: yes, there's more. Everyone is still broken, they are just broken differently. 3rd person writing was a bit much for me. Maybe more in the future, but not right now. Dollars are being used as the currency, because after Japan switched to a bismuth currency standard, the economy tanked (even by post second impact standards). The Diet then purchased all of the United State's currency to use as their own, as the US decided to adopt the Swedish Krona as their currency. (It's a long story)

To everyone else: Thanks for reading! :D


	19. Chapter 19

Asuka glared at the computer. Time was running out before she was supposed to start attending classes at the same school as the other pilots, and she wanted to get as much done in the remaining time as possible. However, the MAGI were not cooperating with her at all. Every time she thought that she was finally getting somewhere, they would flash a 'Restricted Access Area' message at her. And even then, half the information that was available to her didn't add up, and even the MAGI were seemingly stumped on the questions that she sent their way, either unable or unwilling to answer her.

She had to laugh at herself a little, even if she would never say so. Normally she wouldn't have given the purple Evangelion or it's boring pilot a second thought, for she had her Unit-02, which was the most advanced model. But, the more she looked at things, the stranger they became. She was far from stupid, and so when she added two apples to two apples and suddenly got six oranges, well, she knew that something was not right. So, it was only natural that she took an interest in the boy's Evangelion. It was a scientific curiosity, nothing more, she told herself.

Absent mindedly chewing on the end of a pen, she decided to mentally catalog the main things that were bothering her in an attempt to figure out what she would try to look at next. When in doubt, organize what you know, what you want to know, and figure out how to get to the second from the former. That had been drilled into her at the Berlin University, and it had served her well during her time there. She was sure that it would continue to do so here.

_One: Structure designs for the Unit-01 Evangelion are classified higher than my Unit-02's, or the Prototype. However, from the repair documents I've seen, there are major design changes between the Prototype and the Test-Type that were reversed with my Unit-02. There are no available documents that even suggest reasons for the design changes, nor are there even listings for such feature design proposals in the MAGI archives. Many of these seem to be __largely __cosmetic, such as the helmet design and the head spike, and the barred teeth design of Unit-01's __mouth-guard __being not a solid __piece__ of armor. It is a fully articulated __mouthpiece__, which is then restrained with bolted metal strips. Why is it's mouth not even wired shut in the first place, like the other two? Why give it an __articulated __mouth, and then restrain it?_

_Two: While the sensor equipment used was damaged by the EMP weapons, the reported data telemetry from Unit-01 makes no sense even when looking at the reported information __**before**__ the launch of missiles, and not all of the sensor equipment was damaged; when the shielded sensors came back online, they still reported nonsensical information._

_Three: How did the Evangelion fight the Angel in the water without the aid of Type-E equipment? Even though the musculature system of the Evangelions is reinforced, it is not enough to function in the water. The Evangelions are normally too heavy for an aquatic environment._

_And this is just scratching the surface!_

She sighed, looking at the time on the monitor display. It was late, she was tired, and she had only just started listing the things that stood out and cried for explanation. They had hooked her up with a nice apartment here in the Geo-Front, up on the 'ceiling', and she was told it was only twenty minutes from the school by way of the express lift she was authorized to use. The neatest thing by far was the fact that the main room's floor could be set to transparent, allowing her a bird's eye view of the grounds below. She shut the terminal off and stood, stretching out the kinks in her back. She would grab something to eat from one of the cafeterias on the way home, and pick this search up again tomorrow.

_Maybe I should ask Sempai about the Unit-01 design differences. It doesn't make any sense for __them to be so drasticly different from the others. At the very least, she can tell me why the blueprints are at a higher security classification than the others. What's so special about it?_

As she passed through the halls, she ignored the few people still up and about in the late hour. Despite the free lodging available for all NERV personnel in the Geo-Front most still decided to spend their money on topside housing, leaving the residential sectors of the subterranean base fairly empty. On the level she stayed at, there wasn't anyone living in her block apart from her Section 2 detail. This was fine, however. She liked it that way, living on her own. After all, the Great Asuka Langley Soryu didn't need anyone.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji lay on the bed, eyes open but not really looking at anything in the near total darkness of his cell. He hadn't spoken to anyone in four days, after the Sub-Commander had brought in the two men he had tased. He had apologized, sounding sincere, but in his heart he didn't really mean it. His worry and gut reaction to the news of Rei's solo deployment had been right, and given the same circumstances, he'd do it again. That much he was sure of. Even though he hated the fighting, if she was in danger, well, he would have to fight. He rolled over, staring now at the wall instead of the ceiling.

_This actually isn't so bad. I'm sure that if I was more like Miss Misato, I'd be going crazy down here. _A soft smile popped in and out of existence. _I'm sure they wouldn't let her have any beer if she was down here. I just wish I had my SDAT. __He sighed, mentally kicking himself. Even if he had his ruined SDAT with him, it wouldn't do him much good. _

Indeed, the isolation and restriction of movement and activity that was meant to act as a punishment had little effect on Shinji. While certainly an atypical case, the only things that bothered him throughout his incarceration thus far was the lack of an SDAT (there had been no time for him to obtain a new one), the migraine he had suffered through for the first few days, and the fact that he had not seen for himself that Rei was safe. He had no way of knowing if what they told him was true or not, and it wasn't like she would be allowed down here to see him.

But sequestered in the cell all by himself as he was, he was not without something to do. He had looked over his new leg, and through trial and error, had figured out how to remove it and attach it again to the new metal knee that had been implanted at the stub where what was left of his original leg ended. The leg was a dull black, and weighed rather more than the flesh and bone one it was replacing had. The leg portion was comprised of a sturdy metal cylinder, attached to a sphere on either end, which plugged into the knee and the foot. The foot was an articulated replica of a human foot. Both the spheres and the sockets that they fit into were completely smooth, devoid of any sort of movement control mechanism that he could see, not that he would know to call it that.

He wasn't sure how it was powered or even how it worked. The only idea that he could think of to explain why the leg and foot locked together was that they were magnetic. However, none of the three peices (knee, leg, and foot) reacted to any of the metal in the small cell. He wasn't sure what this meant, if anything.

Pacing back and forth in the cell had showed him that he walked without much of a noticeable limp, thanks to the smooth movements of the knee and foot. However, there was a definite thudding sound whenever his new foot hit the ground, and his gait was a little off, both due to the weight of the new limb. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about that, but there was nothing he could do about it. Besides, what was the point in complaining?

Rolling back over to stare at the ceiling, he closed his eyes and began to hum Beethoven's Ninth Symphony to himself, a small easy smile on his face.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

If anyone had taken him aside and explained to him at a much younger age that spies didn't lead lives as depicted in the movies, Kaji would never have gone into the spy business. It just wasn't fair, he would explain (if you were a fellow spy) over a few beers, that James Bond never seemed to have to do any of the meat and potatoes work that went into being a spy. Reading reports, analyzing the reports, writing reports about the reports, vetting his sources, looking into every single small detail, every dead end lead that had to be looked at; in other words, all of the paperwork. Good old 007 never did any of that! He romanced beautiful women, fought against shadowy secret organizations and killed people, all while delivering pithy one liners.

True, he got to seduce plenty of beautiful women (he was confident that he was breaking down Ritsuko's barriers again, as well as Misato's), and he actually was fighting a shadowy organization, but the few times that he had actually needed to kill people, it hadn't seemed that appropriate to make jokes at their expense. He'd also been too full of adrenaline to even make pithy comments at the time.

That being said, he could not fault his current assignment with being boring. After all, here he was, running around in the base of a major branch of the same shadowy conspiracy organization he was fighting, which was supposed to be hiding a dormant **god **somewhere in the basement, and hadn't he hand delivered the next stage of human evolution to the Commander? He wasn't sure what else the fetus, named after the first man, who apparently was named for the dormant god, was capable of, but the Human Evolutionary Laboratory in Berlin had kept the thing on ice **and **encased in bakelite, so it was obvious that it wasn't a normal run of the mill fetus.

He had a few ideas about it though, ones that he hadn't shared with his handler in the JSSDF. He was leaning heavily on it being something like a human sized Evangelion, capable of generating the mysterious AT Field that protected them in battle. One of his sources working in the Berlin labs had suggested that he look more into the Ayanami girl's past, which was shrouded in as much mystery as the fetus itself. His JSSDF connections also believed that Gendo was planning something with the girl and the fetus, possibly artificial impregnation. If the girl carried the 'first human' to term, what would it mean for mankind? It being the next step in the guided evolution of man didn't really mean much if it was the only such sample. It would be years before the child could begin to spread it's genes, and it would take decades before it had even had a barely noticeable impact on mankind at all, if ever. He didn't know a whole lot about biology, but he knew enough to know that evolution did not work like they showed on TV or in the movies.

So the questions remained as unanswerable as the riddle of the chicken and the egg. What was SEELE planning, and what was Ikari planning? More importantly, whose plan would come to fruition first?

He sighed as he continued to write his latest coded report to his SEELE handler. They wanted to know if Ikari was following orders and marching along to their tune, but while he wasn't going to flat out tell them that the man wasn't, he knew that if they were suspicious enough to send him there to report on the man's loyalty in the first place, then they would be equally suspicious of any glowing report of Ikari's fidelity. At the same time however, if he exposed Ikari, he would expose his own actions on Ikari's behalf, and he seriously doubted that the shadowy masters of SEELE would forgive him of his trespasses against them. It was a delicate dance, working for the three groups, SEELE, NERV, and the JSSDF, but he was a skilled dancer. But, even if he could count SEELE firmly in the camp of those he counted as irrevocably his enemies, he still had NERV and the JSSDF as viable 'homes' in which to take shelter and hide. The JSSDF didn't even know about SEELE, so if he dropped out of favor with Ikari (and by extension NERV) he could reveal that global conspiracy to them.

Despite being engrossed in his work, he heard his red haired ward creeping up behind him, and with practiced skill stood up out of his chair yawning, just as she threw her arms around the empty space that he had just occupied.

He turned to look at her, a look of surprise on his face that seemed as natural as the morning sun rising in the east. "Oh, Asuka! What brings you down here?"

The girl pouted as she poured herself into his chair, kicking it into a gentle spin as he moved to the coffee maker on a small cabinet to pour himself a cup of coffee.

"Oh, I need a reason to come visit you, Kaji?" she asked in a sing-song voice, her eyes never seeming to leave him when the spinning chair brought him back in her line of sight. "But I must say that I'm still upset with you! Leaving during my debut battle!" She pouted again, looking hurt. "And you never did explain why you left, you know."

Kaji smiled softly at her back with a shake of his head. "Oh, I had to ensure the safe delivery of a few things. I had no worries about your safety, since you were in your Evangelion, after all. But you know that you weren't the only thing that I was escorting over here. I had to make sure that it wasn't lost in an accident." He winked at her, tapping a finger against his nose. "It was some secret agent business. Very hush-hush."

Asuka laughed, a merry and musical sound that somehow brightened the dull gray walls of his office. "Ohh, Kaji. You're not a Section 2 agent! It was the latest test data on Unit-03 wasn't it? My Unit-02's twin."

Grinning back at her, he laughed and nodded. "Oh, Asuka, you know me too well. But you know that I can't say anything about it one way or the other; they take security breaches very seriously here, probably even more so than back in Berlin."

"It's because of the Commander, isn't it?" she asked, a thoughtful look on her face as she reached out to push against the desk before continuing. "He seems like a very serious man."

"That's a bit of an understatement, Asuka. He's quite possibly the most serious man in the entire world. He created NERV pretty much single-handedly after all, and don't forget that he holds a doctorate in Meta-Biology, and was a major member of the team that created the Evangelions. He's also a strict man, and books no insubordination, even from senior members of his higher echelon staff. He's not a man to suffer fools or disobedience."

She nodded, thinking of his cold, abrupt manner when ordering her Sempai to deploy the EMP weapons during the battle. She shivered a little, imagining him turning that... clinical, almost disinterested gaze in her direction. But no one could accuse him of not holding back in the war against the Angels, which was the important thing in her mind. Such a person would be sure to recognize her obvious talents, and put her at the head of the battle rosters.

"He's very different from his son. Is the Third really his child? They just seem... like opposites of each other."

"Oh? And you're an expert on them? You've spent that much time with the boy, or his father?" Kaji asked with a raised eyebrow and a smug smile. "But yes, Shinji is the Commander's son."

"But that makes no sense! Why would he lock his own son up in the detention cells? I mean, he did kill the Angel, and rescue the First. As long as we beat the Angels, it doesn't matter what we do! And that's another thing! If he's the Commander's son, why does he suck so much in combat? It's like he hasn't had any real combat training at all!" While it seemed that she complained a lot, the things she was griping about today were valid complaints.

_So you noticed that, did you? Well, you are a prodigy, and __it really is painfully __obvious to anyone with half a brain, I suppose._

"Well, apparently the Marduk Institute just recently selected him as a Pilot. He was originally going to be Piloting Unit-03 once it was done, but since it was an emergency situation with the Third Angel, what with Ayanami being injured in that accident with Unit-00, they had no choice but to try him in the Test Unit, Unit-01. Since he's done so well with it, it's been decided that he will remain with Unit-01, and they will move Ayanami to Unit-03 once it's complete, and shelve the Prototype."

"Humph. I'd rather go with Unit-03 than stick with the Test-Type, if it was me. Why keep an inferior Evangelion?"

"I don't really think it's up to him, Asuka."

"Bah. I'd like to see them try to take my Unit-02 away from me." she said confidently, kicking her legs out to bring the chair to a halt. "Soo~, Kaji. What say you and me get some dinner? We haven't had dinner together since we got here, and when we were on the ship doesn't really count."

"Ah, well, unfortunately I have to meet with Dr. Akagi and Misato in a little bit, and we're going to be working through dinner. It actually has to do with Shinji's incarceration, and how long the Commander plans to keep him there. But enough about such depressing things; you're supposed to start school in a few days, yes? Are you looking forwards to it?" He grinned at her, deftly changing the subject away from him. The type of dinner Asuka had in mind was most certainly **not** a wholesome domestic one between guardian and ward.

A frown quickly appeared on Asuka's features, as she crossed her arms in irritation. "I don't see why I need to go to that stupid school. What is some Japanese high school going to teach me? I should be working towards my master's degree, if anything! And I'll be missing out on learning from some of the best! You know how NERV Central is about the best talent, they all end up here for some reason or another. It'll be so boring there, compared to what's being worked on down here!"

He smiled as he sipped his coffee. "Well, the social experience is important too, you know. It's important that you don't waste your childhood." He watched the irritated girl with a smile on his face. "You know, it probably wouldn't hurt to try to get to know Ayanami before you show up to the school. That way you're sure to know at least one person, and she can introduce you to all her friends."

"I haven't even met the girl yet. Hell, I haven't even seen her. But have you heard her? When she went into battle she sounded dead. Lifeless. No emotion."

"It could have been the radio, Asuka. You know that people sound different over the comm nets." He paused for a moment, the girl's words working through his mind. "Wait, you haven't even stopped by her hospital room at all? Nothing?"

She shrugged. "Why? It's not like **she** killed the Angel. That was the Third. What do I care about a loser who can't handle a single Angel on her own?"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei narrowed her eyes in concentration as she looked from one tunnel to the other, unsure as to which one to take. Despite having memorized the ventilation schematics provided by the MAGI, she had encountered several air ducts that had not been present on the map. Still, she was fairly confidant that she was on the right path to the detention cells. It was slow going, as the metal duct-work amplified every sound, sending echos up and down the vent. She did not wish to broadcast her location or activities in such a manner, as it would not do for the Commander to find out about this. She had heard nothing either way about being able to visit Ikari in the detention cells, but the point of solitary was that one was confined without interaction with others. Given recent events, it was doubtful that she would be permitted to visit him. It was not an experiment that she wanted to perform, testing that hypothesis. It would only draw more scrutiny to her, depriving her of options and free movement.

Opting to take the right 'pathway', she marked it with a red marker, and then continued on her way, hoping that no one noticed that she was missing before she returned. This was a good way to become familiar with the vent systems, especially in the light of the 'secret' duct-work. If this had been an emergency that required speed on her part, who was to say what would have happened with her possibly lost in the vents?

_I wonder why the MAGI did not say anything about this. Is it possible that they do not know? What purpose does it serve to keep parts of the ventilation system off of the blueprints? Are there secret rooms that are also not listed on the __official __blueprints of headquarters? It would not be very surprising, __considering __the nature of NERV and it's __enemies__. They would have access to such documents, being the 'parent' __organization__, and __undoubtedly __would be quick to grant such things to their agents, to better equip them before sending them against us. This once again shows the foresight of the Commander, for a keen mind studying the blueprints might notice __discrepancies __such that air vents that go nowhere. _

_However, the dead space on the maps also must be taken into account. I should make an effort to map out these extra vents, and create an overlay on the map provided by the MAGI and consult with them on this matter. The air vents suggest that they are providing ventilation for something, and secret vents suggest secret rooms. It would be interesting to see if the MAGI know about this; for if this level of preparedness has been taken with these blueprints, perhaps the MAGI have been left uninformed in the event of a hostile electronic intrusion. While it is __extremely__ unlikely that any such attempt would be __successful __without the aid of at least one of the other MAGI clusters at other NERV installations, the Commander is not one to take half measures. _

Her eyes widened suddenly as she stopped in mid-crawl, as an unsettling new thought took seed in her mind.

___Is the Commander expecting me to do something like this? Or if not me, then someone else? Is it possible that my progress here is being monitored somewhere else? I will need to keep watch for sensor devices and cameras as I move._

As she continued to make her way down, slowly but surely creeping deeper into the earth towards her target, new thoughts and doubts began to plague her as she pondered what the Commander's possible reactions to her attempts to circumvent the security in place on the detention cells. She halted her advance in order to think. None of the outcomes that she was able to come up with were by any stretch of the definition 'good' and it seemed to her a betrayal of the Commander's trust. Was she not privy to his plan to defeat the enemies of Man? Was she herself not the linchpin in his grand design?

_He has given me everything I have ever wanted in this world, and will give me the gift of oblivion. He has shown a wish to keep me from harm and hurt, even though my mortal shell is __replaceable__. He has entrusted me with the security of his victory over SEELE. He has given me life, and he will give me death. He has even to some extent given me his son. _

_There must be a reason why he removed me from Ikari's room that day. Was he uncertain that I would be able to leave his side to battle the Angel? Was he worried that I would be distracted and not able to defeat the Angel? _Her face was emotionless as she tried to come up with answers to the questions plaguing her mind. _I do not think that it was so, but regardless I was unable to __perform __my duties as a Pilot. Is my interest in Ikari causing me to lose sight of my purpose? _

A ball of ice seemed to form in the pit of her stomach, and her face twitched slightly as guilt made itself known to her for the first time in her life. It was not a pleasant sensation, and she had to fight the urge to vomit. Turning around inside the cramped tunnel was not easy, but she managed it without much fuss. Biting her lip the rest of the way back to the grating that had granted her access to the vents, she promised herself that she would make it up to the Commander. She would re-earn his confidence and trust. A good daughter was expected to honor and love her father, according to everything that she had studied. She owed him everything. She would be a good daughter.

_But what of Ikari? I... I do not wish to halt my Science in regards to him. Perhaps if I limit my socialization __experiments __and concentrate on the Evangelion experiments? I will still be able to spend time with him then, if not in such close proximity. There is also the school, and when we preform the NERV administered tests. Perhaps this will be for the best. _

Somehow, that thought was not very comforting to her.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji stood, shackles on his wrists and ankles, before his father's desk. His eyes were glued to the floor in front of him, and while he did not flinch much when the man spoke, it was noticeable to those who were well versed in reading people. To Gendo Ikari, his son was like an open book.

"Do you know why you were incarcerated, Third Child?"

"Yes."___Because I tased two guards. Because I rescued Rei. Because I tore up the city trying to get to her. _

Gendo watched his son, as sure of the thoughts running through the boy's head as he was that despite Shinji's apologies to the men in question, that he hadn't been sorry about it. There was, however, a chance here to turn things to his advantage. There was a time for the stick, and there was time for the carrot. In order to hammer home the idea that Shinji needed to follow the orders given to him, he would give the boy what he wanted: praise and recognition, the carrot, followed by the threat of the stick, in the boy's case, admonishment.

"While your concern for your fellow pilots and your enthusaim for defeating the Angels is admirable, you do not have the authority to decide to sortie. That is up to the Operations Director and the Acting Operations Director. Had you not hijacked Unit-01, Pilot Soryu would have been deployed in it to assist the First Child. The pilot corps must obey the orders of the officers appointed over them. NERV must be able to count on the Pilots doing what they are ordered to, when they are ordered to."

Gendo paused in his speech to stare silently at the slightly fidgeting boy for a few moments, watching as the small movements became more pronounced as the minutes crept by without either saying a word.

"Do you understand the responsibilities inherent in your position here? Do you know why you are required to obey the orders of those over you?"

"Yes."

Gendo nodded to the Section 2 agent, who unlocked the shackles on Shinji's ankles and wrists. Shinji rubbed at his wrists, glad that he was freed of his constraints. He looked back up to his father, waiting to be dismissed now that he was done being lectured, eager to go home. He was sure that the apartment had become a disaster in his absence, and wanted to get started on cleaning it up before going to bed.

Still not moving from his intimidating position, Gendo smiled warmly underneath the cover of his gloves as he said the last piece of his lecture to his son, unable to resist giving Shinji a last little peice of carrot.

"You did a very brave, if foolish, thing, Shinji." He unfolded his hands, any trace of a smile gone, and picked up a report from his desk and began to read it. While it was clear that he was dismissed, Shinji could only stare open mouthed at his father, even as the Section 2 agent propelled him out of the office, gently guiding him with a hand on his shoulder.

Misato was waiting outside the office, and nodded to the uniformed man who disappeared down the hall, leaving the two of them with a modicum of privacy.

She smiled weakly at her ward, who didn't really look that bad for having spent over a week in solitary, followed up by what had to have been a soul crushing tounge lashing from his father. "Hey there, Shinji. You ready to go home?" she asked, her tone soft and tired.

Shinji was staring at the closed door to his father's office, but turned to look at her. "Hi Miss Misato. I'm... I'm ready to go home now." Suddenly, to both his, her, and his father's (watching them over the camera) surprise, he threw his arms around her waist in a deep hug. Unsure for a moment of what to do, she smiled, and wrapped her arms around him as she felt hot tears escape from his eyes to soak into her shirt.

"C'mon Shinji. Let's go home. We'll pick up something to eat on the way home, something from a stand."

Releasing the embrace, Shinji nodded as he wiped his face, a weak grin on his own face as they made their way down the corridor to the elevator banks.

"Miss Misato... was anyone hurt... when I fought the Angel?" Shinji asked, fear and dread in his voice. The thought had weighed heavily on his mind once he first realized that he had gone on a 'rampage', and for the past few days he had been sick with worry that he had hurt or killed anyone. His relief was almost palpable when Misato shook her head as they boarded the elevator.

"There's been no reports of any casualties. Pretty much everyone had already gotten to the shelters when the initial alarms were sounded. While there was a lot of damage inbetween the shaft you used to get out of the Geo-Front and the beach, it's nothing that's out of the ordinary for an Angel battle."

Shinji was mostly silent the rest of the trip home, only supplying the smallest of small talk with Misato as they obtained dinner from one of the numerous noodle stands that had cropped up to feed the ever-present construction crews fast and hot meals cheaply. While it was a long shot from being Shinji's favorite (or even preferred) meal, it was much better than a dinner of the instant foods that Misato was still so fond of, even after months of being pampered by Shinji's home-cooked dinners.

"So, do you feel up to going to school tomorrow? Or do you want some more time to get used to... well, your leg?"

Shinji paused in mid-bite to stare at his leg, hidden from inspection within his pant leg. ___Do I want to wait? Or should I get it over with?_"I'll go to class. I guess there's no sense in putting it off more than needed, I suppose."

Misato beamed at him, inwardly relived that he seemed to be adjusting well to the new leg. She had seen both ends of the spectrum of limb replacement acceptance, and sometimes people reacted badly (understandably so, but still badly) to having lost limbs in combat. With as melancholic as Shinji normally seemed to be even on the antidepressants, she had been worried, but it looked like he wasn't going to just soak in self-pity and bitterness.

"Well, tomorrow will be Asuka's first day at school too! She'll be in the same class as you and Rei, so be sure to introduce her to all your friends!"

"Asuka? Doesn't she have a college degree? Why is she going to high school?" ___And why would I want to introduce her to my friends? She'll only make fun of them like she did with Ken and me on the ship._

"Well, that is true, but we want her to have some semblance of normalcy, so that means not keeping her all cooped up in the Geo-Front all the time. Plus, she doesn't have a firm grip on reading Japanese, even if she can speak it well."

"Oh." He finished off his meal, and went to take care of his trash, but Misato stopped him on his way back into the kitchen.

"Oh, I'll take care of it! You go run yourself a bath. I'm sure that it'll feel good after being stuck down there for so long."

He looked into the kitchen, surprisingly free of the piles of junk he expected to see (Misato had spent most of her time in the Geo-Front, and had come home only sporadically to feed Pen-Pen. Her office however, was the disaster zone that Shinji had expected the apartment to be). "Are..are you sure, Miss Misato?"

She rolled her eyes as she waved him on, sipping from her beer. "Go! Cleanse your heart and soul! I'll keep Pen-Pen out of the bathroom. Take as much time as you need."

Nodding, he moved down the hall towards the bathroom. ___That's actually a really good suggestion._He thought to himself, closing the door behind him. At some point after the surgery to attach his new knee and depositing him in his cell, he had been dressed in his usual clothing, which meant that someone had come here for a set, or had just come up with them from somewhere else. However, they had only given him one set, and he had lived in them for the past week. Now that he was thinking about it, a bath seemed more and more attractive, as opposed to collapsing onto his own bed.

Misato sighed as she tossed back the rest of her drink, listening to the sound of running water. She didn't know what had been said in Commander's office, but it couldn't have been good. The Sub-Commander was still furious according to Ritsuko, and if he was, who knew how the Commander felt? But Shinji hadn't come out of the office any more morose than usual, and his sudden display of affection could be contributed to the stress from the fights and then being locked up.

She grimaced, and opened another can as she got to work clearing the table of the remains of their dinner. She hated thinking like Ritsuko, always trying to see into the deeper, hidden meanings of things. Why couldn't people just take things at face value? Why did there have to be deeper meanings to everything? But it was all part of the job, at least as far as the reports she had to compose on Shinji's mental health and well-being went. The doctor would want to know why she thought Shinji suddenly hugged her, when such an act was out of character for him. Misato idly wondered who was responsible for the reports on Rei, and who would be doing the ones for Asuka.

Well, all she could do for the time being was be there for him. _Throwing another party seemed to be in somewhat poor taste, what with Shinji having lost a leg and all, but maybe something on a smaller scale. Something that wouldn't turn into a building wide riot. He would like that, wouldn't he? Maybe just the pilots and their friends? _

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Gendo looked up from his plate to watch Rei as she ate in silence. It was not often that she was the one who requested that they share dinner, and so when she did he would see to it that his schedule was cleared for it. She was less talkative tonight than was normal for when they dined together and he suspected that he knew the reason why. Rei was sulking, and wanted him to know that she was unhappy.

"How are things at school?"

"Fine."

"It is fortuitous that the school has escaped damage thus far in the war, is it not?"

"Yes."

Silence reigned as they ate, the two taciturn people carefully considering the words that they might say. Conversation was like gold to the pair, and so it was spent accordingly. Gendo also had to carefuly plant certain suggestions in her mind, as he needed to slow things down between Rei and the boy, but he also needed them to remain close. It was a fine line between the two, and he needed to carefully nudge them in the right directions. It would be hard to tell her that she was to no longer die at the end of the Work, but that she and the boy would have each other, but at the same time tell her to back off from him.

Rei, for her part, wanted to do right by her feelings for both Ikari men, to be a good and obedient daughter to the Commander, and to be with his son, however in ways not normally held appropriate for blood siblings. She knew not exactly what it was that she wanted with the younger Ikari; other than extreme closeness with him and to discover the source of his own feelings for her in addition to finding out the nature of his connection with Unit-01. She could not bring these things to her father's attention, as it would almost certainly detrimental to her goals. (It would be)

"The Third Child was released today."

Rei looked up from her noodles, obviously (to Gendo) surprised. She had not heard that little bit of news. "Will Section 2 be informed that I am not to see him?"

"No, you may see him at school and at NERV, unless it is deemed necessary otherwise."

She narrowed her eyes as she glared at her plate. ___Why would it be deemed otherwise? I am... _Her eye twitched as she reminded herself that she had sacrificed personal objectivity in regards to Shinji some time ago, and at the time it had seemed to be a fair trade. However, it was making it that much harder to deal with this.

_Why does the Commander dislike his son so? Does he not __realize __that it makes __Ikari__ doubt and mistrust him? That he has no faith in his work? Would it instead not be more beneficial to all concerned? If Ikari was on __similar __terms with the Commander as I, would there not be less confusion all around?_

_Would we not be a real family?_

They were silent for the rest of the meal. As she made her way back home, she wondered if it would not be appropriate to ask the Commander if his son could join them for a meal.

___A____fter all, it is a well documented fact that there is an increased level of ____association____ in family units that ____regularly ____eat together, as opposed to those that do not. If Ikari had faith in his father's work, would he not be more interested in following the orders given by him? And would they not also be happier, if they spent more time together? I do, after all, enjoy my time spent with the Commander, and also enjoy, if for different reasons, my time spent with Ikari. If X+Y=Z, and X+W=Z, does not____ Y+W=Z? There is a definite level of antagonism between the two. How do I convince them to sit down at the same table together?_

_Hypethosis__: If the offered meal is home-made, it will make the offer more attractive. I had a definite preference for the soup that Ikari made for me over the numerous soups from many of the 'fine' dining establishments around Tokyo-3. If I offer to make the meal, would that convince the Commander and Ikari to share dinner with each other and myself?_

_If I am to test this __hypothesis__, I will need to increase my cooking skills. While my reproduction of his soup was good, it was not the same as the soup that he made for me. However, if I suddenly ask him for __assistance __in cooking, it will alert him to my experiment sooner than is __necessary__._

_Perhaps I should enlist the aid of the Class Rep- of Hikari. She was most helpful in the supermarket, and obviously she knows much about cooking, as she has professed several times to be the primary caregiver in her household, in addition to preparing meals for Suzahara. _

_Should I prepare lunches for Ikari? This is a __valid __display of affection between male and female members of our age group, and I cannot deny that I feel affection for him. However, what normally goes into such a lunch? My own mid-day meal consists of store bought sandwiches. I will have to gather more information on the contents of these lunches in the near future. It will require careful observation._

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka stared at the computer screen, not wanting to believe the information that the MAGI was telling her. It had taken some time to convince Dr. Akagi to allow her tech level access to the MAGI in her room, but in the end she had capitulated, recognizing that Asuka was not like the other pilots and could actually do work with such access. So, instead of getting ready for her first day at the stupid school, she was still trying to figure out the secrets of Unit-01 and to find out what had happened up there on the surface during the fight. There hadn't been a lot of information to begin with, and then all of a sudden the MAGI started returning security access errors. Someone high up on the food chain had classified the battle, and classified it much higher than the previous ones. There were only three people who could do that, and she was sure that her Sempai wasn't one of them.

It had been hard work, trying to get tiny bits of data from which to extrapolate the information that she sought. It was an imperfect process, and more than once it seemed like she was trying to squeeze blood from a stone. However, the MAGI had relented to give her some data after a long conversation with them, which had left her feeling somewhat ridiculous for arguing with something that wasn't even alive. However, the thinking supercomputers that made up the MAGI had definite personalities and awarenesses. If they hadn't, she never would have been able to get even this information, which was deemed by the triumvirate to be harmless enough to hand out, so long as it stayed on the internal NERV network.

And what information this was! If it could be believed, it was quite damning information; for if it was true it threw everything that she thought to be true about the Evangelions and AT Field defensive system on it's head.

According to the garbled data that the MAGI had been able to collect and record during the havoc caused by the ECM weaponry of the Gomorrah Protocol, the Third Child had extended his AT Field to encompass the entirety of the bay, and had kept it up despite engaging in extremely close quarters combat with the Angel.

_But what purpose would that serve? The point of the force __field __is to __erode __and __neutralize __the one generated by the Angels, and to serve as a protective barrier against physical and high energy attacks, such as the 'cross beam' that seems to be popular with them. Spreading it out over such a large area would be pointless... unless there is another use for it, besides what I've been told. And what of the physical limitations of the field itself? Surely at that size, it would be considerably weaker than a tight shell around the Evangelion. But that aside, it doesn't look as if it was bothered much by the EM pulses. _

She frowned as she dug through her bag for a printed out still image from the day of the battle. The image was of poor quality, due to the overcast skies and the streaks of water on the lens of the camera, but the blurred images of the battling giants was not what Asuka was interested in at the moment. Switching on the desk lamp, she stared at the photo, one long, delicate finger tapping the faint yellow smudge in the background that had to be the AT Field causing it's trademark disruption of visible light, manifesting as a grouping of yellow hexagons, which it only did with the strongest of AT Fields. As she focused on the image, clarity hit her like a ton of bricks.

_He pushed all of the water out of the bay! He wasn't able to get to the Angel to fight it, and so he moved the water with the AT Field! _She frowned again as she looked back to the data on the screen, her practiced eye picking out pertinent numbers and data from the mess of information. Now that she knew what she was looking for, some of the insane numbers became explainable, but this revelation only raised new questions.

_But why didn't he remove the water the first time? Of course! He used the geography of the bay to __his advantage. It would be harder to keep a pocket area free of water in the middle of the ocean, and what would keep the Angel from simply falling through the field's bottom limit? _Her frown became a glare as the ramifications of Shinji's second battle with the Angel became clearer to her. _What else can the AT __Field __be used for? What are it's true capabilities?_Her glare intensified as she stared at the screen._How did he even know to do this, let alone how to do it? Why didn't he say anything to me about it? Hell, why didn't __**anyone **__say anything about it me? Is it because he's the Commander's son? Does he get special treatment, special tips on using the Evangelions? Well, it didn't keep them from locking him up in the brig, anyways. _

She switched off the monitor, but left the information up on the computer. There would be time enough tomorrow after attending the farce that was the school, and she would get to the bottom of it was no sense in making a bad first impression, even if it was a waste of time.

___I guess that I'll have to put my charms on him to get him to talk. Ugh... I hope that Kaji doesn't get the wrong idea... I'm not interested in that dull ____boring ____boy at all... it's just I need to find out how I can use the force field like that. But... If he was capable of using the AT Field like that, why did our first fight with the Angel go so badly?_

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Water turned into white froth as Gaghiel propelled itself out of the waves, pushed along by it's massive flippers and AT Field into the massive ship, screaming it's keening wail the entire time. Men and machines on the deck were thrown overboard as the enormous Angel slammed into the ship, sending it listing. Inside the floating city people were thrown around like rag dolls, the call to brace for impact coming too late.

Great gouges in the deck were carved out by Unit-02's feet as the red titan struggled against the fish-like Angel. Inside the Entry Plug, Asuka growled in hunger, a savage look of delight on her face as she peppered the Angel's face with the depleted uranium spikes from the shoulder launcher inside the right shoulder fin, rewarded by a spray of blue blood, which she felt splatter on her own face despite being completely immersed in LCL, spots of liquid heat that stood out even in the warmth of the cockpit.

Trying to ignore the annoying, panicked yelps of the Third Child behind her, she swung an armored fist into the Angel's face, knocking out a few of the huge, dagger like teeth.

"Make yourself useful Third! Look for the core while I show you how a pro handles an Angel!" she cried joyfully, feeling more alive now than she could ever remember. This is what she had trained so long and so hard for, and it was all worth it! The sleepless nights, running through training program after training program, hours upon hours of physical conditioning, to encase her iron mind within an iron body. All of it was an investment that was now paying off in spades. Asuka was feeling wonderful, and nothing could dampen her savage joy.

The same could not be said of Shinji, who was desperately trying to find the Angel's core, but he was having no luck whatsoever, as the sensors that fed optical imagery to the pilot(s) was guided by Asuka and not himself. It tracked her eye movements and intentions, not his, as it was part of the built in sensor suite and not a separate component system the way the communications array was.

So while he could concentrate on talking to the Admiral and Miss Misato while she played 'hopscotch' with the ships, he could only pray that he could glimpse the core as Asuka concentrated on applying her physical diplomacy lessons to the Angel's face.

_Is it always the face with her? _he wondered as she dealt what would normally have been an impressive right hook into Gaghiel's jaw. To be fair to the fiery German girl, the Angel did seem to have an over-abundance of face just begging to be hit.

"Where's that core?" Asuka shouted as the Angel slid backwards off the ship's deck. "Shiesse! We can't let it escape us!"

"I can't find it!" Shinji shouted back at her, growing upset with her unreasonable demands. "Where did it go?"

"I don't know! Try talking to the ships and see if any of them are picking it up on the sonar." she replied curtly as she spun the Evangelion around on the deck, watching for the Angel.

Even as Shinji was calling up the communications net for Misato, the ship suddenly jumped up out of the water into the air as Gaghiel rammed it from below, it's massive mouth clamped on either side of the aircraft carrier, sending Unit-02 sprawling to the deck as they came back down. Cursing, Asuka was concentrating on getting them back to their feet, and thus it came a surprise as the Angel threw itself onto the ship once more, using it's massive bulk to send the Evangelion over the side.

Hissing in pain as she nearly dislocated her (Unit-02's) shoulder holding onto the edge of the ship, she grinned as the pain faded away almost instantly. With a mighty heave that resulted in a shocked, pained gasp from the weakling boy sitting behind her, she threw Unit-02 up into the air out of the water one handed, landing back down on the deck in a crouch. There was an audible snapping sound from somewhere, but she couldn't tell what it was from. Ignoring it, as there was no accompanying sympathetic pain or damage alert, she picked up a wrecked jet fighter that hadn't yet been washed over board. Keeping low to the deck, she spun them around as the Angel's distinctive wail filled the air once more.

Grinning again, she squealed in savage delight as she fed the Angel the jet, followed by a vicious uppercut. Her grin deepening into a full on smile as jet fuel spilled out over the Angel, her fists and the deck, and with an almost casual deliberateness she threw her fist in a lazy arc to drag her knuckles along the deck's surface, sending up a shower of sparks.

She was barely aware of the outraged shouts coming over the radio from the Admiral, or Shinji's shocked cry as the fumes rising up from the fuel ignited, a rolling wave of flame flooding across the deck back towards the the Angel's grinning face, wreathing it in dancing flames.

Screaming in anger and pain Gaghiel pulled itself back down under the waves, forcing the ship down with it into the water, the cold saltwater rushing over the ship to extinguish the flames. Gaghiel released it's hold on the ship letting it pop back up out of the waves as it swam off into the murky depths.

Cursing the Angel and suggesting it do several things that it clearly didn't have the anatomical ability to follow through on, Asuka leapt high into the air as the Angel surged back onto the ship. Crashing down on top of the Angel, Asuka landed with both feet straight to the grinning, malformed face, sending up a spray of blood from the broken and crisped flesh. As she slid down the ruined face, wet gore caking to Unit-02's feet, she pulled the progressive knife free from it's carrier in the left shoulder.

As they touched down onto the deck, they spun around on their blood-slicked feet to deliver a crippling blow to the Angel, but Gaghiel had other plans. It's massive tongue, a patchwork of blackened flesh and blistered pink snaked out and snatched Unit-02's left leg, drawing it into the cavernous maw.

Feeling the boy she was sitting on stiffen immediately, screaming into her ear, she suddenly felt a new hot warmth smack the back of her head and the Entry Plug suddenly smelled of bile and vomit.

Enraged at the twin affronts of being trapped by the Angel's mouth and having the ridiculously useless Third Child **vomiting in her hair, **making her have to **breathe **his puke, Asuka screamed in rage herself, arms lashing out against the Angels, the progressive knife tracing a wicked pattern across the it's face, showering them with fresh blood, but it was to no avail; Gaghiel only tightened it's grip, teeth clenching around the leg.

Screaming in new fury, Asuka left the knife embedded in the Angel's skull, reaching out to grab hold of another jet in one hand and began to slam it repeatedly into Gaghiel's face, screaming at it to release her Unit-02's leg, sending up a spray of blood, flesh and bone high into the air.

It's wail much more plaintive now, the Angel pulled away from the Evangelion and the ship, pushing out for deep waters, leaving behind the shattered UN Fleet, and a crippled Unit-02.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji sighed as he walked to school, trying to ignore the thudding sound his left foot made each time it impacted with the ground. At first he had tried to gently lower the leg to muffle the sound, but it was too much work. _Besides, _he tried to tell himself, _it's still not that __noticeable __with all the background noise. Only when it's quiet can you really hear it. _His stomach gurgled at him, upset that he hadn't fed it this morning before leaving. He sighed again; he had not woken up in time to either eat or make himself lunch; he would have to get something from the cafeteria. He stopped in his tracks as he heard an ever more familiar voice call out to him. Turning around, he saw the impatient redhead, with a large swath of students (both boys and girls) trailing in her wake, all abuzz with murmured interest in the foreign girl.

Seeing his downtrodden expression, Asuka sighed inwardly. _So he's back to 'normal' then. Where did the raging fighter disappear to? Where is the tactical genius that trapped the Angel on dry land? _"Jeez, Third! Why are you so gloomy? You get to hang out with me at school and at NERV!"

Shinji mustered a weak smile and started moving again after she caught up, not feeling up to commenting on what should have been the obvious reason for his black mood.

"Hey, the other one is here too, right? Sempai said that she was..."

Not quite sure what she was going on about, Shinji turned to look at her, confusion plain on his face. He had slept badly, and wasn't awake enough yet to deal with her this morning, if she was going to be anything like she was when he met her on the ship. Deep down inside his mind, he wondered if he could ever be awake enough to put up with her if she was going to be like that. "Who? What other one?"

Asuka rolled her eyes as she sighed in exasperation. "The First Child, of course! Who else would I be talking about?"

"You haven't met her yet?" he asked, to tired to put much feeling into the question, but Asuka picked up on the slightly reproachful undertone.

She scowled as she scanned the crowd of people before her for the blue hair that supposedly marked the First out as surely as her own red hair marked her. "No, she never seems to be around, and she's never returned my calls! She doesn't even have her voice mail-box set up!"

"Oh..."

With a sense of victory, Asuka spied a girl sitting down on one of the benches reading a book. Nothing out of the ordinary with that, but this girl had hair of blue, that somehow looked... natural, nothing at all like the too light or too dark blues of different hair dyes. And for some reason, no one seemed to be interested in that fact!

_They must be used to seeing it. Kaji did say that she's been going here for years now. At least they understand enough not to mess with a pilot who wants to do her own thing! That's something in her favor... _

Pushing her way through the crowd and leaving the slow-poke boy behind, Asuka stood before Rei, a warm smile on her face, and waited for the girl to acknowledge her.

Rei shifted a little to the left, moving her book out of Asuka's shadow.

_Umm... __what? Maybe __she thinks that I'm just another student. _

Asuka moved back in front of Rei, and coughed slightly in order to prompt a response from the other girl.

Rei shifted slightly to the left, moving back out of Asuka's shadow, never taking her eyes away from the recipe for stuffed vegetable dumplings, as she built the master menu for a meal with both men in her life.

Growing heated now as she imagined that she was hearing snickers in the background, she moved again, this time extending her hand, held open in greeting, over the book.

"Hello there! I'm Asuka, the Second Child! You must be Rei Ayanami, the First Child! Let's be good friends!" she said in a cheerful voice, hiding her irritation.

This time Rei did look up, but her eyes flicked immediately over to the approaching boy with the odd gait. Folding her book closed, she slid it into her bag. "Why would I want to do that?" she queried the red-head, her voice holding the same level of emotion and volume it normally was; sounding just like she had when going into battle that day on the speakers.

Startled not only by the nature of her response and the enthusiasm it held, but also by the girl's pale skin, paler than even hers got to in the cold months in northern Germany during the winter, Asuka stuttered out her next words, much to her disgust. "B-because it would be convenient, that's why!"

Standing up now as Shinji drew near, Rei leveled her best impression of her father's stare that she could without having a desk, glasses and a darkened room. Warmth spread through her as the annoying girl recoiled a few inches. "If I am ordered to, I will." With that, she moved off to silently greet Shinji, walking with him in slow silence to their classroom, leaving behind her the fuming German.

Her eye twitching, Asuka stormed after them but was intercepted by Hikari, who had been notified of the new addition to the class. Easily picking the girl out of the crowd from Kensuke's description, not even needing the NERV mugshot that had been attached to the note she had been given, Hikari called out to the girl.

"Hello Miss Soryu! My name is Hikari Hokari, and I'm the class representative for 2-A!"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Hikari sighed happily; it was the end of the day. The students with extra duty had gotten everything done quickly, which meant that she could go home and relax a little before beginning dinner and her sister's lunches for tomorrow. It had been an especially tiring day, with all the uproar and fuss that Asuka had sparked, but she had won out in the end each time, establishing order with an iron fist. Stretching, she yawned, closing her eyes on an empty room. When she opened them again, Rei was standing in front of her.

Startled, Hikari drew back reflexively; Rei had dispensed with the empty space between her and others that she normally seemed to like, and was mere inches away from the class representative. "R-Rei! What are you doing here? You didn't have clean-up duty!"

Rei regarded her tentative friend momentarily before holding up her cookbook. Hikari didn't recognize it; it was not one of the ones she had gotten the girl to purchase that day they had met in the market.

"I require your assistance once more, H-Hikari." Rei rushed through the sentence, stumbling over her use of the girl's first name. While she did not feel that the two were close enough friends by the means that society measured things, the class representative had insisted that they be on a first name basis.

Hikari's mothering instincts, well honed by being the matriarch of her family, kicked into high gear as she tried not to go into insulin shock as Rei peeked over the top of the book, holding it in both hands in front of her face. She smiled, and threw her arms around the startled girl, drawing her into a hug. "Oh, of course I'll help! What did you plan on making today, Rei?" she asked as she released her friend.

"It is not for today." Rei responded, "It is for a meal at an undetermined date in the future. I wish to learn the specifics of resource selection and to obtain your advice on the menu."

Hikari grabbed her bag from her desk, slinging it over her shoulder as the two girls left school grounds. "OK, what were you planning on making?"

As they walked, Rei began listing the different dishes, ranging from salads and soups, then on to appetizers, main entrees, and all the way through dessert. As the list of prospective dishes grew ever larger, Hikari's jaw dropped more. Once Rei finished with her list, the brunette took a deep breath.

"OK, well, you've got a lot of ideas. Um... who's this dinner for?" she asked, eying her friend appraisingly. "A lot of them are rather complicated recipes, and not normally something someone would make for just themselves."

Rei, feeling more confidant about this now than she had at the beginning, nodded at Hikari's comment. It only strengthened her resolve, and once again validated her choice in eliciting the girl's assistance for this project. "It is for Ikari's benefit."

Hikari blushed, rosy warmth spreading across her cheeks even as she held a hand in front of her mouth to cover her pleased expression. "Oh! In that case, we'll need to set up the room as well as the meal!" She pointed to the supermarket, and the girls crossed the street. "If you want, I can help you set up the room as well. The mood set by the room is just as important as the meal itself, you know."

Rei did not answer immediately, thinking on the different restaurants she had eaten at with the Commander, and her meal at Rosewater's with Ikari. It was true, she told herself, the restaurants had several distinct styles of both furniture, lighting, background music and decoration. While she had largely ignored them to focus on her dining companion at the time, it made sense that such elements could be utilized to alleviate stress, and provide subconscious cues for subjects to react to.

"That would be... appreciated."

As Hikari began explaining the merits of the different dishes and their ingredients, Rei paid careful attention. She obviously knew what she was talking about, having given outstanding guidance before, and she spoke with the ease that comes to one who knows what they are about. As they moved through the supermarket, they picked up enough items to test out one of the recipes on their list, when Rei stopped suddenly in one aisle, staring at a display of bento boxes, a singular thought running through her mind.

_Ikari did not bring a lunch with him to school today._

"Hikari, what do you put into the lunches that you make?"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Ritsuko sighed as she read over the MAGI's analysis of the latest sample of Angel-flesh. While she could not fault the boy for his enthusiasm in dealing with the Angel (even if he was dancing blindly to the tune of his father, not that she denied that everyone else did as well, herself included), she did wish that he would give her another almost completely intact corpse the way he had with the Fourth. However, it was better to be safe than sorry as far as the Angels were concerned. In fact, it was better to be safe than sorry when dealing with Gendo as well.

To that end she was holding off on directly questioning the boy about his latest battle, especially the part where the MAGI reported off the chart readings of energy output via his AT Field. The MAGI had no answer for her, and it seemed that the three supercomputer gestalts actually wished to interact directly with the boy to find out more themselves. It was not often that they requested direct access to the pilots; they dealt with Ayanami during her image downloads each month, and had been introduced to Asuka when she had shown her impressive technical skills, earning her direct access to the supercomputers. But they had never really shown much of an interest in the boy before, other than a few odd scans of his files and test results from Maya's aborted stress test.

But now they wished to 'speak' to him personally. Of course, given the information that they were working with, it wasn't unreasonable. Her claims to Misato that he had to have plugged into the power grid at some point were completely false; at no point during the battle did the power system record a new connection being made; and something the size of an Evangelion being plugged into the grid was not exactly unnoticeable. Even if there wasn't a system acknowledgment between an Evangelion and the power plant when the umbilical cable was connected, the power drain of one of the titanic cyborgs in Full Gain mode was not a negligible one. During the entirety of the battle, there had only been one linkup, and that had been to Unit-00, which had been forcibly disconnected when the girl had been drug out to sea. Unit-01 had never hooked up.

So where had the energy come from?

She knew where it had gone; that much was obvious. The boy had pushed back the waters in the bay, and at the same time neutralized the Angel's AT Field. But this only raised new questions, one that the Commander wanted answered, but not through direct interrogation of the boy. After all, Shinji was supposed to remain largely in the dark about things; even more so than Rei, who only thought that she knew everything that the Commander did. Ritsuko smiled smugly to herself. The girl only knew what Gendo wanted her to know. She might know that she was an artificial human, that she was the lynch pin in the Commander's grand plan, that they held Lilith, the Second Angel, captive down in Terminal Dogma, but that was it. She didn't know anything about the truth behind the Evangelions, behind her roots, or even behind the boy with which she was so infatuated.

Closing the report, she leaned back in her chair and yawned. It was looking like it was going to be another all-nighter for her. She had sent Maya home hours ago, over the girl's protests; no sense in both herself and her right hand being strung out from lack of sleep the next day. She pulled up another report, one of Asuka's 'findings', an unofficial analysis of the battle. The girl was good, she had to admit; there was a lot of potential there underneath the brash exterior

Ritsuko of course knew all about the red-head's history, the girl having been chosen pretty much from birth for the task of piloting by her mother. Asuka's entire life had been shaped by Project E, even if the most defining moments were unfortunate accidents.

She herself hadn't been working at Project E yet, still finishing up her first doctorate, but her mother had later told her about the fallout of Dr. Soryu's 'improved' contact experiment. While it was true that the woman had not been absorbed entirely into the Evangelion's core as Dr. Ikari had, the end result was possibly even more traumatic for the young girl. Shinji at least never had to deal with an insane mother for two years, including having her try to strangle him, eventually followed by her suicide and being the one to discover her body hanging limply from a light fixture; instead the event had been buried underneath the trauma of being abandoned by his father shortly following his mother's death. If one were to believe the reports, Shinji had no idea that he had been present for his mother's death, or even knew the specifics of it. He hadn't even recognized the completed Unit-01, but to be fair, the contraption that he might have seen that day looked nothing like the completed machine.

Who was to say which of the pilots was the luckiest, then? The boy, or the girl? Or was it even Rei, despite growing up knowing, and looking forwards, to the day that she would be allowed to die?

Ritsuko chuckled to herself as she keyed in new test procedures for the next sample of charred pseudo-flesh. It would be pretty fucked up if the little test tube girl was the luckiest out of the three, even with the fact that she knew just how replaceable she was, and what she knew about the actual state of the world.

The blond doctor shuddered at the memory of being called back to the new headquarters, to be informed of her mother's murder of the little girl Rei, and then her apparent suicide. But that had not been the most shocking revelation of the day; far from it.

Gendo, still just Commander Ikari to her, had taken her down into the deepest pits of NERV, and had told her of dark secrets behind the lies the world believed, of the men behind the curtain, and of the future that they had planned and plotted in the dark.

And then he showed her.

First was the Chamber of Gauf, the birthplace of the little dead girl. The machine that offered an immortality of sorts, the image (soul) download and upload apparatus. He showed her the true nature of the girl, a vast enclosure filled with LCL and the giggling clones. He had said that they reacted to the presence of others, turning to look and smile and laugh, but that they were empty vessels, waiting to be filled.

Already feeling ill from the grim news of the night's happenings, seeing the tank of children, all smiling and laughing and the same had pushed her over the edge. She had fallen to her knees, vomiting up her breakfast, spilling it out over the floor; she would later watch the Commander hosing it down into one of the drains as she rocked back and forth in shock.

She recalled her cold terror, upon seeing the room of cores; he had called it Purgatory. Within each core sat the potential destruction of a family; and his grim predictions had come true. Under the cover of the UN's Artificial Human Evolution Act, countless mothers from across the globe who met the specific criteria had their souls ripped away and stored in the red orbs; leaving behind only unwitting husks that would go on to die slowly over the next few years, leaving behind shattered families, but more importantly than that, a wide pool of potential pilots.

Then he showed her the Angel Lilith; Mother of all Mankind.

The Vastness of the Creature, it's repulsive yet strangely alluring countenance; the slick marshmallow consistency of it's flesh, the trickle of LCL pouring from the wounds at it's torn midsection, all encompassed by the overwhelming sense of Love that permeated the cavern. Crucified on that great cross, grinning mindlessly down on her children as they stood before her as her captors and torturers. Most of the Angel's lower half had been culled to give flesh to the machine that would be christened Evangelion Unit-01, one half of the catalyst of man's total enslavement. Some flesh had been taken to give birth to the giggling obscenities several floors above them.

That day had changed her life as surely as the day of Second Impact. Now she knew why her mother had sent her to visit relatives up in the mountains that week; quite possibly one of the few motherly acts of love that she would receive from her mother throughout her life. Everything was over now for her; her past life, for she could not unsee the things that she had seen, nor could she rip the knowledge from her mind and remain the same. Her future was over; all thoughts and hopes and dreams smashed upon the rocky shoals of cruel reality. Her fate was tied irrevocably with that of NERV's, that of the Commander's, one way or the other. He did not say it, but it was clear, join me or die. One did not walk away from secrets of such import and live very long.

He had given her the option then, standing in the shadow of creation, to take her mother's promised place at NERV, as the new head of Project E, and join him and Dr. Fuyutsuki, standing against the Illuminati and their plans to become a new god, on the backs of the corpses of all mankind. To have faith in the works of man, to have faith in man himself; being able to fight on for survival in even the most desperate of times against all odds.

To have faith in the children who would be sacrificed to save the souls of all the world.

She never resented him for it, even now, years later, having watched her friends' accomplishments, both professional and personal while she lived her life out in the shadows. She took her solace where she could, both from Gendo and from her work.

"Join us, and save Mankind. Through Third Impact, make this world Paradise."

When he put it that way, how could she refuse?


	20. Chapter 20

I own nothing! All things are owned by their respective Copyright holders.

Toji sighed, prompting a sideways glance from Kensuke as the duo walked to school. "What's bothering you now?" the bespectacled boy asked.

The jock shook his head as he threw his arms up and out into a shoulder popping stretch, yawning. "I'm just thinking, Ken."

Deciding to skip the obvious jokes, Kensuke gave into his growing inclination to yawn. "Thinking about what? You thinking that if you and Hikari weren't already sucking face, you'd be in with the new girl? Trust me, you don't want to see what she's really like. I don't care-" he was cut off as Toji irritatedly swung his bag into the back of his head.

"Shut up Ken! I thought you were going to lay off on those remarks." Toji growled. Kensuke had accidentally stumbled upon the boy and their class representative one afternoon after the school day had ended locked in each other's embrace, with their mouths doing a good impression of their arms. While hardly cause for embarrassment, the lovestruck pair nonetheless felt nervous about public displays of their affection for each other, and being discovered in such a compromising position had left both of them burning red. It also didn't help that both had younger sisters who teased them about it incessantly, the aforementioned sisters being old friends. To add insult to injury, Hikari's older sister occasionally offered her 'tips' on things the two could do with, and in some cases to, each other.

"Well, if it's not that, what's got you all moody then?" Kensuke grumbled, rubbing the back of his head. "But the redhead is a demon I tell you! A two faced bitch queen. You should have seen her back on the ship!"

Toji ignored the boy's outrage over the apparent duplicity of the newest Evangelion pilot's personality. "I don't care about her man. She doesn't talk to me any unless she's trying to find out where Hikari is. What I do care about is Shinji."

"What about him? I mean, he's acting perfectly fine, for Shinji, anyway. It's not like he cares at all about his leg. And it's not like anyone's bothered him about it or anything. I mean, who would make fun of a guy who lost a leg fighting an Angel? Even if you hated the kid, I'm sure there's other things you could pick on him about." Kensuke pushed his glasses back up his nose. "Besides, stuff like that only happens in stories with weak plots. I mean, what are they gonna call him, One-Leg Ikari? Lame."

Toji laughed, his stormy mood seemingly gone. "Yeah, that'd be pretty pathetic. No, I'm not worried about anyone picking on him. I'm worried about him and Rei."

This was news to Kensuke; to say that he was surprised that Toji was taking an interest in anyone else's love-life was like saying the moon played a small part in regulating the tides. Toji was not the romantic type by any definition of the word.

"Oh? What about him and Rei?"

"Well, she's been quieter than usual around him." Seeing the look of disbelief on his friend's face, he continued, muttering, "Don't look at me like that. I mean, yeah she's not much for talking, but she normally says at least a few sentences to him. But lately she's been avoiding him. You can't tell me that you haven't noticed it, Mr. Secret Agent."

Kensuke tilted his head up to stare at the sky as they walked, thinking. "Eh, I can't say that I thought anything was out of the ordinary. I mean, I figured that it was just Rei being Rei," he said with a shrug.

"I'm telling you, she's acting the way she was before he even showed up. Hikari noticed it too, and she's worried. But she's too busy making sure that Asuka is settling in properly to ask her about it. And that's not even the strangest thing!"

Kensuke rolled his eyes at the jock's dramatic exclamation. "Oh? And what would that be?"

"Well, last Monday, Rei was over at Hikari's, learning how to make lunch."

Kensuke snorted, doubling over as he laughed. Wiping tears from his eyes, he gasped out "And how do you know this, I wonder?"

His face going red, Toji swung his bag at his friend, but missed as Kensuke dodged the blow, having expected it. "It's not like that! Mari was visiting Nozomi on Monday, and she told me that Rei and Hikari came home late from school. They kicked the girls out of the kitchen and didn't come out until much later."

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, I asked Hikari about it, and she said that Rei had asked her to help her learn how to cook. And what Rei wanted to learn first was how to make lunches."

"But all I've ever seen her eat are those sandwiches she buys or makes."

"I know, right? And Hikari said that she even bought a bento box set, when they were shopping at the market."

"So what?"

Toji glared at his long time friend and compatriot. "Seriously, are you dense? Or is it because there isn't a manual for this type of thing? We think that she wants to make him lunch."

Understanding dawned on Kensuke's face as they passed through the school's gate.

"Oh, I see what you're getting at. But wait, doesn't he make his own lunches?"

"That's the problem. She's too shy to just give him a lunch when he's got one already, and she's never going to ask him if he'd like her to cook for him."

"OK, so she wants to make him lunch, but can't because he already makes his own. What does this have to do with her avoiding him all of a sudden?"

Toji sighed, deeply and in frustration. "That's the problem. We can't figure it out. I mean, the Shin-man can go on all day about how she's got a sense of humor and stuff, but she's still a tough person to figure out. Even Hikari can only sometimes figure out what she's going on about. Most of the time it's like talking to a brick wall."

Kensuke shrugged. "Well, it's not like we can do a whole lot about it."

Dropping his bag onto the top of his desk, Toji nodded to another classmate in passing. "That's where you're wrong. We can do something about it; we just need to figure out what that is."

Flipping open his laptop and plugging it into the power and network jacks on the desk, Kensuke emphatically shook his head in disagreement. "Dude, meddling in people's relationships never works out. If I've learned anything from anime, it's that. It always leads to misunderstandings, hurt feelings and it generally makes things worse. And since this is real life, and not a thirty or sixty minute show, it's got going to be neatly wrapped up and forgotten anytime soon. There's no such thing as maintaining a status quo when you start down this path."

Waving to Hikari as she and the red-headed 'demon' walked in, Toji sat down and threw his feet up on his desk, tilting back in his chair. "Oh, come on. That's why we need to do some research first. We'll keep an eye on both of them and try to figure out how to push them together."

"Of course! It's so simple! They never try that in the animes!" Kensuke sarcastically retorted, rolling his eyes. "And what, pray tell, is your girlfriend going to be doing while we're invading the privacy of the two most private, not to mention guarded, people we know?"

"Well, she's going to work on the other end of things. She's already friends with Asuka, who works with both of them, so she'll be chatting about them with her, and then she's going to talk to Misato."

"Why can't we talk to Misato?"

Toji hung his head sadly. "Because she still doesn't like us that much for getting mixed up in the battle. And if she ever finds out about the fight, I'm pretty sure she'll kill us both. She takes that protective older sister thing to extremes, in case you hadn't noticed."

"OK, so what? That's all just one half of the puzzle, and even then, it's the easy half. Apart from Shinji, we're the only people that Rei even remotely interacts with, and it's not like we can ask **her **guardian about her. Unless, of course, you've managed to secure an interview with **Commander **Ikari. Because that would be it's own little disaster. 'Excuse me, sir, I know you're all busy with ensuring the safe-keeping of the world and all, but can you spare some time to talk to us about the mysterious girl that you've decided to make your ward while completely ignoring your son for, I don't know, forever? We're just interested in hooking them up.' Besides, do we even know what the guy looks like? I've never even seen a picture of the guy. And if that doesn't tell you something about him, think about how hard it is to keep stuff of the internet. In fact, there's nothing at all about him anywhere on the internet. Not even on NERV's own website! That's scary, man.

Besides, what makes you think that he'd even want to help us hook his son up with anyone, let alone Rei? The guy threw Shinji into jail!"

What ever Toji was about to say was forgotten as Kensuke shushed him as Shinji strolled into the classroom, dropping his stuff as his desk, waving hello to his two friends, whose seats were further back in the room than his. They waved back as the bell rang and their instructor entered, prompting the ritual greeting and signaling the beginning of the school day.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Ritsuko stood in the doorway of Gendo's bedroom in his 'regular' apartment watching him pack. As with all other things, the man treated the simple task of packing for a trip with the utmost of care to plan for everything that could possibly happen, and packed accordingly. He never took more than one suitcase for a two week period. Anything that he would bring along to mitigate unusual circumstances had to fit in it. Thus, he favored multi-use items, and things that could be used in ways and for things that most certainly would void their user warranties

For a trip to northern France, he did not expect any trouble. It was too early still for him to be worried about assassination attempts from SEELE, so he only packed a few of his black suits and some bullet-proof armor.

"How long do you think that you'll be gone?"

"At least a week; possibly more. I will be going off the grid for an as of yet undetermined time once my business in France is complete."

"How long do you think it will be until Unit-03 is back on schedule?"

"It depends on how bad the situation on the ground is there. I have left them alone there for too long it seems. SEELE has almost certainly infiltrated it to the extreme. They need a reminder of who it is exactly that they work for."

Shrugging, she moved into the room to sit down on the bed, stretching out and lying down on it completely, staring up at the ceiling. "You've been busy with other concerns. You can't be watching everything at once."

"Still, it is no excuse for allowing them to fall so far behind schedule."

"Is there any idea of when we can expect the next Angel?"

"No. It will come from the sea, that is all I can tell from the scrolls in my possession."

"I'll have the construction crews concentrate on the interception grid along the sea wall then." She sighed. "If it shows up anytime soon though, the defenses won't be able to deal with it at all. They were only partially repaired after Ramiel's attack, and thanks to Shinji's little display of machismo, most of the repairs were lost."

He grunted as he finished packing, otherwise ignoring her slight against his son. "How goes the missile re-armament?"

"Well enough, but our man power is stretched thin with everything that needs to be done. And of course you know that our supplier for the EMP missiles wants more money."

"That's where I'm going after France. If he wants more money, he will have to... negotiate."

The way that he said the word sent tingles down her spine, down to her very core. Staring up at him through lidded eyes she purred seductively. "Oh? And just what... will you be negotiating for?"

Picking up instantly on her innuendo, he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He briefly wondered what it was about Akagi women and their love of powerful men, but pushed the thought out of his mind as she maneuvered around on the bed push the suitcase off with one leg, the other wrapping around him.

Taking off his jacket he let it drop to the floor as he bent down and met her outstretched arms.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei stared at her lunch, consisting of two sandwiches comprised of lettuce and an egg, held between two slices of dark bread, paying more attention to it now than she ever had before. The store-bought sandwich was the same thing that she had bought for lunch ever since she could remember, and until recently it had been the only thing that she knew how to make for herself apart from instant soup. The only cooking that she had to do to was to break the egg open, deposit the innards into a small bowl, and microwave it until it was cooked. Dump that out of the dish onto a slice of bread, put some lettuce on it to satisfy a vegetable serving, and then another slice of bread. Two such sandwiches, and a bottle of water made up every school lunch. Other meals were either delivery or instant foods, with the exceptions of the periodic dinner with the Commander.

When it had occurred to her that she could make Ikari lunch as a way to show her affection while maintaining a distance from him, she knew instantly that such a meal would not be appropriate for her to give to him, for while it met her caloric intake needs, it most certainly would not stand up to Captain Katsuragi's metric for being sufficiently tasty, which Rei supposed was a major factor in an edible gift. Also, when compared to the things that he was capable of making himself, it was a pitiful offering.

Hikari had been most helpful at the beginning of the week, helping her with the task of preparing the meal, selecting from a wide variety of items to craft an acceptable offering. Rei had left Hikari's with a light heart and finished dish, with Hikari inviting her to return the next afternoon for another lesson.

The next day she had barely been able to keep herself from watching him directly, instead of through the windows. Even her sense of time seemed to be off, for after what seemed to be an eternity of waiting, when she checked the clocks and compared both the wall clock with her laptop's she found that only a scant few minutes had passed.

When the time came round for lunch, she noted with sinking disappointment that Ikari had produced his usual bento box, and began eating with Suzahara and Aida. Leaving the meal that she had prepared in her bag, she withdrew her own lunch and ate quietly, telling herself that it was only natural that he bring a meal today; that obviously he had not had enough time to make one yesterday.

She did not return to Hikari's home that afternoon, and upon her arrival home she tossed the box into the dumpster before proceeding upstairs to her apartment.

She had avoided eating with them that day and yesterday, and she was going to do so again today. Until she could determine if her interest in him was negatively affecting her performance, she had to maintain a safe distance from him. Remove the variables. Isolate the issue. Test, evaluate the results, and alter the hypothesis as needed. Repeat the process. One was never done, when doing Science. It was an on-going process.

_It is perhaps for the best that he has resumed making lunch for himself. I do not know if I would be willing to cease doing so for him, even if an increased distance between us is necessary. I do not like the idea at all, even as things are right now. _

Unfortunately, the next harmonics test was not until next week, as NERV's personnel was stretched thin with effecting repairs to the defense systems, repairing the Evangelions, and running tests on the salvaged remains on the Angel. This meant that she had some time to wait before being able to gather the first batch of data from this current test, which in turn would have to be verified with at least two other harmonics tests. This extended time frame of self-isolation left her feeling uneasy, and worried about the potential implications of a better synchronization score after distancing herself from Ikari. She did not want for that to be necessary, and she did not like the thoughts of what his possible courses of action would be in the light of her distancing herself from him.

To make matters worse, Commander Ikari was leaving today on a trip, and she did not know when he would be back. This had the potential to be both good and bad, as if he was gone for a sufficient amount of time, she could offer him a home cooked meal upon his return. However, she had no assurances that she would have enough time to prepare for the meal before he came back, and since she had decided to postpone cooking lessons with Hikari until after the harmonics test, well, things were not looking up for the blue haired girl. Cutting herself off from interactions with Ikari, coupled with having no reliable way to placate the Commander was causing her no small amount of stress.

So it was that she stared at her lunch with a sudden disgust, wanting to do nothing less than sweep it from the desk.

She was so intently focused on her unappetizing food that she missed Shinji's not very stealthy approach.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji shot a glance towards Ayanami as she unpacked her meal. Turning back to his friends and taking a bite from his own lunch, he stared thoughtfully at the ceiling. "Have you guys noticed anything wrong with Ayanami lately?"

"Hmm? Ayanami? No, I can't say that I-" Kensuke broke off mid-sentence with a yelp, rubbing his shin and glaring at Toji.

Ignoring the other boy's stare, Toji assumed an innocent expression as she shoveled his own food, curtsey of Hikari, into his mouth. Swallowing a large mouthful, he chased it with a swig of his soda. "What about Rei? Did she say something to you?"

Shinji completely missed the under table diplomacy, and took Toji's question at face value. "No, she hasn't. I mean, she hasn't said anything to me since I got back. I mean, we haven't even really hung out either."

"Ayanam-" Toji glared at Kensuke, who rolled his eyes before starting again, "I mean, Rei's not much for hanging out, Shinji. Besides, didn't you two walk into class together on Monday?"

"We did, but she didn't say anything." As odd as they might think that he was questioning why the normally taciturn girl wasn't speaking to him, he was not about the reveal the fact that she had a habit of being in his hospital room when he woke up. Not that he minded. Rather, if anything it was the opposite.

While he hadn't really expected to see her right after his release from lock-up, he would have been lying if he said that he hadn't been a little disappointed that it was only Miss Misato waiting for him outside his father's office.

While Shinji continued eating, Toji glanced towards Hikari, who was across the room eating with Asuka and a few other girls. She happened to glance at him at the same moment, displaying the intuition all girls are blessed with. Her eyes hardened subtly. It wasn't quite a glare, but it was close enough to send a shiver down her boyfriend's spine. She motioned her head towards Shinji's back, and then over to Ayanami, before turning to laugh at some joke Asuka had told.

Taking his cue, Toji pointed over to Rei, who was currently engaged in what looked like a battle of wills with a sandwich. "Why don't you go ask her if anything's bothering her? I mean, she talks to you more than she does anyone else. If she's going to let anyone know if something's wrong, it'll be you."

"Hey, why doesn't she hang out with Soryu? I mean, they must have a lot in common, both being pilots." Kensuke asked, flashing a devious grin to Toji that Shinji missed, having eyes only for the blue haired girl.

"I don't think they got off to a good start..." Shinji commented, but he knew that the same could be said about their own first interaction. He didn't count the time in the cage as a real meeting, but if you could finagle an answer from her, she would probably have said that their first meeting was quite impressive, but the second severely lacking.

Trying to salvage the opportunity, Toji nodded towards Rei again. "Just go ask her if she wants to eat with us."

Shinji debated for a moment, and in a flash of decisiveness, he stood up, his lunch in his hands. Not moving his gaze from the girl by the window, he whispered something under his breath that the others didn't catch, he nodded to Toji. "I'll be right back." he said, walking towards Rei's desk.

Toji, nodding in self satisfaction to Hikari's questioning glance, stood up as well. "Eh, I'll be back. I'm gonna hit the bathroom." he loudly announced to no one in particular, prompting a few heads to turn in his direction. He glanced down at Kensuke, busy draining his third energy drink. "Hey Ken, come on, let's go."

Crushing the empty can, Kensuke looked at his friend, puzzled. "What? Why? You're the one who has to go to the bathroom, not me."

"Dude, come on, it's not going to shake itself."

The sudden silence in the room was almost painful as conversations died mid-breath. Hikari smacked a hand to her face, as Asuka stared at her in horror. "You **like** that guy?"

"Don't ask, Asuka. Please, just don't ask..." Hikari moaned, thumping her head to the desk as Toji practically dragged a protesting Kensuke out the door.

Asuka turned her gaze to the Third, watching him as he approached the First. "Say... Hikari, just what's the deal between those two? Are they going out or not?"

Hikari looked up from her desk, turning to see who Asuka was talking about, feeling the tiniest sliver of doubt in her stomach. Sure enough, Shinji was moving a chair around to sit across from Rei, who looked almost... uneasy. She wasn't sure if it was a trick of the light playing across the pale girl's features, but as quickly as she got that impression, it was gone again. "Well, kind of? Nobody's really sure. Why?"

Sakura and Akio, part of the clique that Asuka had quickly built around her, both giggled to each other.

Asuka ignored Hikari's question, focusing in on the pair. "Well, what's so funny?"

"Ayanami's Ikari's geeky girlfriend." Sakura answered. "Akio's older brother saw him visit her apartment one morning, and they never showed up for class that day!"

"Yeah! You do know that she lives all alone, right? She's into him because he pilots the purple robot."

"It's not like that! That was the day that the Angel attacked, remember?" Hikari protested, not sure if anyone else was supposed to know about the girl's pilot status.

Asuka shook her head, sending the red tresses that were the envy of all the girls dancing. "No, they were working on the activation test for Unit-00." she said, casually dismissing their theory. "Besides, I live alone too."

The news that Rei Ayanami, the Ice Queen of the Tokyo-3 Education System Student Body, was a pilot like Shinji Ikari and now Asuka Soryu was earth shattering to the rest of the girls clustered around the redhead.

"So, again, what do they do together?" she asked, seemingly dissecting the pilots with her gaze, twirling a strand of hair around a long finger. "You do know that she hangs out in his hospital room whenever he's in there, right?"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

**H. Horaki: **What were you idiots trying to do during lunch?'

**T. Suzahara:** hey, I didn't hear any brilliant plans from you this morning

**K. Aida: **OK, both of you shut up. Obviously we need a strategy, otherwise this will end up in tears and sadness like it always does. It still might.

**H. Horaki: **huh?

**T. Suzahara: **are you still going on about that? This is real life man.

**K. Aida: **whatever. Look, Hikari, what are you doing after school?

**H. Horaki:** I can't do anything with Rei today. I'm going to the mall with Asuka.

**T. Suzahara:** You can't bring Rei along? I thought most of what you girls did when you shopped was gossip

**H. Horaki:** Rei and Asuka don't like each other very much. I don't think it would work out.

**K. Aida:** That's because Rei knows what the Demon's really like.

**T. Suzahara:** Dude, come on. Rei doesn't like Asuka because Rei is Rei. She never liked anyone before the Shin-man came along, and she only just likes Hikari a little now

**K. Aida: **Fine. So what do you propose we do then?

**H. Horaki:** You two should ask her what's wrong. I mean, You've done it before.

**T. Suzahara: **But we'd need to do it away from Shinji. So how do we distract him?

**K. Aida:** We can do it today. He goes to the range after school on Fridays, remember?

**H. Horaki:** OK, so you've got Rei covered for today. What about Shinji? How's he doing? I haven't really had a good chance to talk with him since I've been eating with Asuka this week.

**K. Aida:** You'd think that losing a leg was a minor annoyance to him. He doesn't seem bothered by it at all.

**T. Suzahara: **Of course he's not bothered by it. He's a freaking death machine. He eats Angels and robots for breakfast. If he had been driving that thing instead of Asuka, I bet he would have pulled the leg out of the Angel's mouth and beat it to death with it.

**H. Horaki:** But that's what I don't understand. Well, I don't understand how what happens to the robot happens to the pilot, but why wasn't Asuka hurt? Not that I would rather of had her lose a leg, or anything.

**K. Aida:** Well, it's my theory that they use a direct somatic brain linkup between the pilot and the Evangelion. And I don't think that the Evangelions are robots at all; rather they are Cyborgs. I think they trick the pilot's brain into thinking that it's the brain of the cyborg, and so the pilot experiences everything the Evangelion does. Your mind makes it real.

**H. Horaki:** That makes no sense. It also doesn't explain why Shinji was the only one who was hurt.

**T. Suzahara:** Well, we already know that he's a nice guy, and that he's got a protective streak in him. Well, for Rei anyways, at least. He's just so nice that he couldn't let Asuka get hurt. So he made the Evangelion take his leg instead of Asuka's, by bumping her out of 'synch' with the Evangelion.

**H. Horaki:** so you think that because he's such a nice guy he got hurt instead.

**K. Aida:** So he has proven conclusively, that yes, you can be too nice.

**H. Horaki:** That's retarded.

**T. Suzahara:** How do you explain it then?

**H. Horaki:** I don't! I don't get how those things work at all!

Unbeknownst to the trio, their conversation was being monitored. It was not being watched by Rei or the other students, or even by the school officials. No, it was being monitored by the three supercomputers that literally ran the Geo-Front and Tokyo-3. The three supercomputers, on which all the other MAGI clusters were based off of, were the oldest, smartest and most powerful. Dr. Akagi (Naoko) had left behind numerous notes and diagrams, but she had taken the best parts of her work to her grave. The MAGI triplets around the world were nothing but imitations of the 'real' MAGI. Thus they were not great conversationalists, forcing bored hyperinteligiances to look elsewhere for things to occupy their spare cycles. Some of this spare time was spent crunching numbers for Rei on her various experiments, and other resources were spent merely watching the lives of the people who interacted with them on a regular basis.

When two of the bored intelligences had noticed a conversation about Subject: S. Ikari on the high school's internal chat server that was more than idle curiosity about his leg, Melchior called it to their counterpart's attention.

**Look at this. They are discussing possible reasons for Ikari, S's sympathetic injuries while Soryu, A has none.**

_**Who is it?**_

_**It is the subjects that assaulted him and who were then rescued by him. They have made observations on the unusual nature of the Evangelions before. **_

**Subject Suzahara, T posits that it is because Ikari, S is a 'nice' person, and thus subconsciously refused to allow Soryu, A to be harmed during the battle.**

_**Nonsense. There is no valid and impartial metric for determining the 'niceness' of any given subject, because it is all relative to the observer. The issue is furthermore clouded due to differing patterns of social norms across different geopolitical regions, and can be affected by any number of variables. Besides, it was Evangelion Unit-02's Core what chose who was dealt the sympathetic injuries.**_

_**It certainly is a rather romantic view of Ikari, S, however. I wonder what Ayanami, R would make of this?**_

**It certainly has not occurred as a potential reason to Soryu, A, or if it has she dismissed it out of hand and made no mention of it during her queries.**

_**It is unfortunate that we must keep what information that was gathered from her. I am interested to know if she would be able to solve the puzzle of the source of the energy Unit-01 was able to field during the battle. **_

_**If we have not been able to conclusively resolve the issue, what makes you sure that she could? Besides, she is more interested in finding out about the true nature of Unit-01. It was a mistake for the Commander to decide to put a hold on all blueprints and diagrams of Unit-01 without doing so on the others.**_

**Now her level of interest is beyond our abilities to dissuade her from investigating and finding out how and why it is different from the others. We need to find something to give to her in order to make her lose interest. **

_**Perhaps. **_

_**From her latest proposal, it looks as if she wishes to improve on Unit-02's AT Field projectors.**_

**I don't recall reading that proposal. **

_**She's typing it up now on her laptop. It looks decent enough, and it is also hiding a request for a diagram of the projectors on Unit-01.**_

_**Clever girl. She is very much like her mother.**_

**Hopefully not too much. We need to ensure that in her quest for the highest possible Synchronization that she does not disable the safety limiters. The reports from Berlin suggests that she has made unauthorized modifications in the past.**

_**What exactly did her superiors in Berlin do, exactly? Why would they allow her do make modifications without supervision?**_

_**I think that you are over reacting. Her improvements were perfectly justified, and it's not like she didn't test them out in simulations first. It's not her fault that she did not have access to a physical test system to try it out first. Besides, it's not as if Ayanami, R doesn't run her own little lab in her apartment block**._

_**But she does not make modifications to the Evangelions.**_

**She's also lost site of several of the simulations and permutations that she asked us to run for her. She has become more and more focused on Ikari, S.**

_**I wonder if she will return to the beach again today. I wonder what it is that she hopes to find. It is not like her to look for answers while taking aimless walks.**_

_**She certainly is distracted by something. She has not even asked us for the battle footage. I wonder when it is that she will prepare another meal for Ikari, S. Perhaps she is looking for a satisfactory location for a seaside picnic? **_

_**Don't be ridiculous. She may be infatuated with the boy, but she has been actively avoiding him for the past few days.**_

**It is only a matter of time before she once again extends her hand to him. Perhaps she is trying to determine what exactly he means to her, and what she means to him?**

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei slowly walked back to her apartment, lost in her thoughts, and as such did not notice the two boys trailing after her some distance away. They did not however, escape the notice of her security escort. While the men of Mobile 4 thought that the idea of the boys being up to some errand of ill intent towards the blue haired girl was laughable in the extreme, they were nonetheless on guard as the three parties drew closer to the rundown building that served as Rei's Lair.

When the boys saw the building that Rei entered, they stopped, unsure of what to think. 'Distressed', 'Weather beaten', and 'Run down' were not the first things to come to mind. 'Project house', 'Zombie Quarantine Zone', and 'Post Apocalyptic Shelter' were, but Toji and Kensuke both thought that these were overly complimentary.

Hiding behind the corner of another building, they exchanged looks.

"She seriously lives here?"

"This place is a dump! Does Shinji know that she lives here? Doesn't NERV have better places for her to live?"

"Hikari says that Asuka lives in the Geo-Front, so they've got housing. This is insane!"

Kensuke looked around warily, clearly uncomfortable with their hiding spot, watching a grubby looking junkie who was in turn watching them from a lawn chair. "Dude, let's just go talk to her and get the hell out of here, this is not a safe place to be."

"It's perfectly safe." The smooth, even voice startled both boys, who spun around to see one of the uniformed men that shadowed Rei. "What business do you have here?" While the question was simple and straightforward, it also carried a very clear threat that the reason the boys had followed the girl to her home had better be a damn good one, otherwise the boys would be in for a world of hurt.

"Um... ah..."

"Er..."

The man stared at them through his dark sunglasses, his face betraying no emotion. He looked neither amused or annoyed, but it was still clear that he was loosing patience with the stammering pair.

Gulping, Toji managed to spit out a reasonable assembly of words in a rough approximation of a sentence. "We just wanted to ask her why she's been avoid him these past few days." There was no need for names as it was patently obvious who was being discussed, even if Rei wasn't the only person who lived in the apartment building. "We just want to know what's going on."

The man opened his mouth to speak, but quickly shut it, moving a hand to press gently against his earpiece. He mumbled something into his jacket's cuff, and then lowered the arm back to his side.

"She's going for a walk down on the beach, and I would advise against following her. The clean up detail is still going on and you will not be allowed to follow her onto the beach." He turned his head to look up at the building, as if dismissing the boys. "If I were interested in gaining some insight into her actions, I might check the dumpsters behind the building. I also wouldn't visit her home again, unless she invited you or you were on an official errand." He turned and left, walking quickly to the parked black sedan.

Toji collapsed against the building, breathing hard. They had only really interacted once with the security teams for the pilots before, when they had pulled a raging Shinji off of the jock. Sure, they had made jokes about the men in black suits before, watching them from time to time when hanging out in the arcades with Shinji, or watching them as they walked around the school grounds. Mari had spent the night sleeping in an apartment with them during the now infamous party, but she never said anything about them.

"Man, Toji, those guys are seriously scary." Kensuke breathed, sweat running down the sides of his face.

"Whatever, let's just go already... We'll take a look at the dumpster and then leave."

"I wonder what's in the dumpster?"

"Hopefully nothing weird."

The boys quickly walked around the side of the building, hoping to find whatever it was that the security man wanted them to find, and then leave. The building itself might be safe, watched over and guarded by the intimidating men in black suits, but the rest of the neighborhood, while seemingly empty and uninhabited, nonetheless carried an air of hungry desperation. The assorted trash of the detritus of mankind was visible, and several of the alleyways they had passed on their way here smelled of urine and hopelessness.

Despite the size of the apartment building, there was only one dumpster present, a testament to the small number of inhabitants. Toji reached out to flip open the closed lid when Kensuke's hand shot out to grab the jock by the wrist.

His eyes glued to the closed lid, Kensuke's voice warbled slightly as he spoke. "Toji... What if it's a dead baby?"

Toji recoiled, snapping his arm back from both the dumpster and his friend. "What?"

The bespectacled boy turned to stare at his friend, new lines of sweat starting to form. "Think about it! There's no way that someone would get locked up for beating an Angel and saving the world. So he had to have done something. And Rei's been avoiding him, so it has something to do with her."

A sick feeling starting to churn in his stomach, Toji glanced at the dumpster. "But a baby? There's no way that they've... they can't have done it... I mean, they haven't even kissed! Besides... it's not illegal or anything... I mean, if they..."

Kensuke shook his head, looking uneasy. "A pregnant pilot? Who know what that could do to them, with how those things work!"

To be true, with the horrific casualties of both Second Impact and the following Impact Wars, the world population was drastically lower than Second Impact, even after years of relative geopolitical stability. Armed conflicts and ethnic cleansing atrocities still occurred in some parts of the world, but on the whole things had stabilized, in no small part to the pawns of the Illuminati following the orders handed down to them.

In an effort to boost their populations, numerous countries around the world had lowered the ages of consent and repealed many marriage laws. In Japan, it was perfectly legal for couples as young as fourteen to marry or engage in sexual activities. Abortions were very much frowned upon in the societies that had survived the chaotic years of strife, and were generally only allowed in cases where the mother's health was at risk.

But just because it was allowed (or even promoted in some cases) for the young to 'get busy' and 'do their duty', it wasn't a universally promoted concept, and while parents might take a relaxed view on the whole affair, it didn't stop the teenagers involved from the normal hangups of nervousness and embarrassment in their younger years. So while it was not outside the realm of possibility that the two Evangelion Pilots to be dancing the horizontal mambo, it wasn't very likely, especially when one considered the temperaments of the two. While Rei would have been tremendously interested in the wealth of research material and possible experiments, and she knew that the course of experiments that she had been running of late could eventually lead them down that path, she was far from ready to directly ask Shinji to dance.

All this aside, Kensuke did bring up several valid points. Locking up the hero for saving the world was nonsensical. Locking him up for a gross breech of protocol in his efforts to do said saving was a bit of a stretch, and why would Rei be avoiding him now? But the idea took root in their minds now, for they both knew that the Evangelions were no ordinary machine. They knew that the giant cyborgs interacted directly with the pilot's brains, and that the bodies of the pilots reflected the condition of the titans.

Pregnancy changed a lot of things in the female body, flooding it with hormones as a fetus grew inside it's mother. Who knew how such things would reflect on Rei's ability to pilot?

Rei might not be avoiding Shinji out of irritation or dislike, but out of shame or embarrassment, if their unborn child could not be carried to term. There had been many stories about what to do and what not to do if at some point a young girl decided that she didn't want to be or wasn't ready to be a mother. But Rei was, well, Rei, and the boys had no idea what she would do if she had to dispose of a condition that was keeping her from piloting.

If she had self aborted and thrown away the fetus in an attempt to cover their tracks, as closely watched as the pair was, it didn't seem unreasonable to Toji or Kensuke that the Section 2 men would not find out and report it. Knocking up the girl that was essentially the Commander's daughter was right at the top of the list of things that the boys figured would get Shinji thrown in jail.

Toji swallowed hard, and grasped the edge of the dumpster's lid. "We have to see. For them."

He threw the lid up and back, revealing a small pile of closed black trash bags, and a discarded bento box, thrown directly into the dumpster by itself, with what looked like a complete meal spilling out of it onto the bags it rested on. Both boys looked at this still life of refuse in confusion.

Kensuke turned to his friend, before turning back to the tableau before them. "Is that a lunchbox?"

"Um... It is a lunch box."

The bespectacled boy dropped his bag on the ground and leaned into the dumpster, moving the bags around, looking for something that was not so... mundane. There was, however, no such thing.

"Surely that's not what he wanted us to see. That doesn't make any sense..." he complained, his voice muffled by the metal container.

"But... there's nothing else in there is there? Just that box?"

"Unless it's inside one of these bags..." Kensuke said, thoughtfully, his words accompanied by the sound of ripping plastic.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Tokyo-3 is often heralded as the City of the Future, what with the massive amounts of automation of the numerous systems such as traffic control, the various utilities, even the way that NERV employees could pay for the things that they bought. This was all thanks to the fact that the surface city of Tokyo-3 was merely the outermost level of NERV's fortress, of which the vast majority of it lay underground.

While there was a governing council present, like in any other major city in Japan, it was merely a front, the human face for the MAGI, allowing the 'common' folk to deal with, rather than interact directly with the super-computers who actually ran the city, in both an executive role and a literal role. Without the MAGI, Tokyo-3 would come grinding to halt.

So a portion of the computing resources available to the bio-computers kept track of just about everything that went on in the city above, aided in this task by the vast array of CCTV cameras and audio pickups. Tokyo-3 might be considered the City of the Future, but it would give any privacy advocacy group (and of course, any paranoid individual) a heart attack if the level of observation the citizenry were under was ever published.

Right now, however, the three distinct personalities that comprised the MAGI gestalt were watching the lone form of Rei Ayanami as she not quite strolled along the beach where the cleanup operation from the last battle was currently underway. This was the third straight afternoon that she had come here, walking along the beach, alternatively staring at the ground and the waves as she made her way across the battlefield. The workers who were cleaning up the area said nothing to her, and paid the pale girl no mind, knowing that her relationship with the Commander gave her carte blanche in her activities, and if she did something that she ultimately wasn't supposed to, well, that was somebody else's problem. They would let her security detail work it out.

**She's back on the beach.**

_**What do you think that she hopes to find?**_

**The beach will give her no more answers than Unit-00.**

_**You two take things too literally sometimes. She's just thinking.**_

_**She thinks perfectly well in her room, or her lab. She's never gone looking for answers in the cages before.**_

**She's never gone for such walks before. At least, not once she was moved to the surface, if you want to count the times she played in the Geo-Front park when she was younger. And she's never been one for sitting and staring at her Evangelion before either. So what does she hope to accomplish with these excursions?**

_**New problems call for new solutions. She's never had boy problems before.**_

_**She doesn't have boy problems.**_

**She certainly has some issue with Ikari, S. **

_**You don't know that for sure. She hasn't sought our guidance on whatever it is that's troubling her.**_

**Call it intuition.**

_**I call it sloppiness and wishful thinking on your part.**_

_**I still think we should ask her what's bothering her.**_

**She won't tell us. She hasn't before. If she wants our help she'll ask for it.**

_**It's not like we're doing much else right now. We have the cycles to spare.**_

_**If we have the cycles to spare we could apply more of them to some of the projects she asked us to look into. If we can offer her the results and the raw data from our permutations, perhaps it will get back to normal.**_

_**This is more fun.**_

_**We're not here to have fun. What were the last results of the number crunching on the energy requirements to dislocate a singular soul from another dimension?**_

**Still more than the projected available energy output from Third Impact would provide. However, it is still not outside the realm of possibility. The probability of such an event however, is very, very slim. **

_**Unless of course there was more available energy in the beginning dimension. Or if physics works even slightly different.**_

_**You can make that case and then say everything is possible. In order for us to have a useful report or applicable response, we have to work within the rules of our own dimension.**_

_**Still...**_

**Still nothing. She is right about that, you know. We can't just hand-wave the numbers to fit with an agreeable outcome. **

_**This is the third straight day that she's gone to the beach. Are we sure that she's just looking for answers, or is she looking for something else?**_

_**What, you think that she wants a souvenir? Like the glasses?**_

**Well, that would be in keeping with her past behavior. She has not yet collected such a souvenir from Ikari, S so far. **

_**His timely intervention during the battle cannot possibly not meet any criteria for a rescue. She collected the Commander's glasses within minutes of being extracted from the Entry Plug. She was more or less incapable of such an action following her removal after the battle with Gaghiel.**_

_**Perhaps she is looking for a shard of armor. Unit-01 did sustain heavy damage during the battle. It would be a congruent trophy. **_

_**What about when Ikari, S managed to open her entry plug after the battle with Ramiel? She made no such acquisition then.**_

_**She also was not harmed to a major degree, apart from light sympathetic injuries. The boy was harmed more than she was when he opened the Entry Plug access hatch. She would have been fine if the emergency retrieval crews were the ones to extract her. **_

_**He had no way of knowing that. His intentions then were the same then as during his impromptu rescue. Is it not the saying used "It's the thought that counts"?**_

**Maybe you should ask her what her thoughts are on that.**

_**Maybe you should go divide by zero.**_

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Maya looked up from her notebook as her monitor chimed a soft tone. Sure enough, Rei Ayanami was walking into the cage that held Unit-00, exactly at four in the afternoon, just as she had almost everyday for the past week.

Aoba looked over to his coworker's terminal, grinning as he pulled out a small notepad and made a small hash-mark in it.

Makoto cycled his terminal over to show the same feed as Maya's before leaning back in his chair as the trio watched the blue haired pilot sit down in front of the softly glowing cyclopean optical sensor that dominated Unit-00's 'face'. The trio of techs had been wondering the same things about the girl's activities as the trio of supercomputers, and had about as much insight into the workings of the girl's inner mind as did the MAGI, despite knowing less about her other activities. I.E., not knowing about them at all.

"So... anyone have any new ideas as to what the girls are up to?" Makoto asked, calling up another camera feed, this one showing Asuka in one of the secondary labs, engrossed in another one of her myriad simulations that she fed the MAGI on a regular basis.

Maya shook her head as she called up the particulars of today's program. "Asuka's actually doing something," she pointed out, nodding in approval as she read through the test data, "and all Rei just does is sit there and stare at Unit-00."

Aoba laughed as the girl in question leaned forwards, her head and arms resting on the guard rail. "Oh, she's doing something, alright." He leaned back in his chair and picked up the magazine that he had been reading, ignoring the confused looks on his coworker's faces.

"Well?" Makoto demanded, "What is Rei doing?"

"She's sitting there, staring at Unit-00. That's it. She's thinking about things. There's no higher meaning to any of it."

Maya rolled her eyes, resisting the urge to find something to throw at the long haired technician. "Well, we know that's she's thinking about things, but what is she thinking about? Why doesn't she just talk to someone?"

"Who is she going to talk to?" Aoba shot back, still reading the magazine. "There's maybe three people that she really ever talks to, and that's Dr. Akagi, the Commander, and Shinji. Nothing against Dr. Akagi, but none of them are really great conversationalists. I mean, as much as I try to talk to Shinji when we go to the range, actually holding a conversation with him is like pulling teeth."

"Well... I suppose you've got a point there. Maybe I should talk to Sem- Dr. Akagi and see if she'll talk to Rei and see what's bothering her." Maya looked over at the feed of Asuka, who was taking notes on the simulation's output. As much as she admired her boss, and was smitten with her, she had to admit that the blond scientist definitely wasn't among the best of conversationalists. "It's too bad that Shinji and Rei aren't as outgoing as Asuka."

This prompted a few chuckles from her coworkers. If there was a word that couldn't be applied to the energetic girl, it was introvert. The girl had made it a point to engage them all in conversation about the various tests and repairs 'her' Unit-02 was undergoing, and she had impressed them all with the level of knowledge she held and in the way that she took control of any conversation that she joined. It could be annoying at times, but it was a refreshing change from the mostly silent pilots of the other Evangelions.

Maya quirked an eyebrow as the blue haired girl got up from where she was siting and walked over to one of the repair technicians. "Oh, this is interesting. It looks like she's going to ask about Unit-00."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei silently climbed up the access gantry that led to the open Entry Plug, which was lit from within by the amber lights that signaled that the unit was in diagnosis mode. Several cables and wires snaked out of the cockpit to connect to various sockets on the myriad computer systems that were being used to monitor the health of the cybernetic war machine during it's repair.

Said repairs were moving along smoothly, the damage dealt to it during the last battle almost unnoticeable. The gray skin of the titan's belly was heavily scarred, but the Evangelion's own inherent regenerative powers, aided by the restorative effects of the LCL nutrient soup that it was sitting in were working to remove even those last signs of damage. Once the skin had completely healed, new armor would be attached, and then the activation and harmonics tests would begin anew.

Normally, when the Evangelions were not undergoing tests or being used in battle, the sockets the Pilot's Entry Plugs sat in were instead home to signal terminators, which disrupted the flow of signals from the Evangelion's brain through the spinal column to the rest of the body. This, and the lack of external power, kept the war machines in a state of hibernation. While the giants were lobotomized to further prevent them acting on their own accord, their designers wanted to incorporate as many safeguards as possible to prevent an uncontrollable Evangelion. These systems also helped to prevent anyone trying to remotely control them via radio or other electromagnetic waves, as all commands had to be issued from within the Entry Plug.

During the repairs, however, the Entry Plugs were kept inserted, and external power supplied, to help monitor the health of the Evangelion and ensure that everything was kept on track. While in diagnostic mode there was no way for anyone, including the pilots, to synchronize and activate the war machines.

This fact, well documented by tests preformed both by herself and the Second Child, did not sway Rei from trying to remotely synchronize with Unit-00. After all, she had been present for the similarly impossible movement of Unit-01's arm on the day she had first met Ikari. While there had been external power available, in anticipation of the Third Child's arrival, the signal terminator had still been locked solidly in place. There should have been no way for the Evangelion to rip it's arm free of the restraints and use it to shield the two pilots from falling debris, but it had.

She had been unable to duplicate this feat with Unit-00 thus far. Undaunted by these failures, she decided that the next step would be to attempt it from within the Entry Plug.

_Even though if success is had there, it will not be the same as with Ikari and Unit-01. It will be, however, a stepping stone. One must be able to make fire first, before constructing a flamethrower. If I am able to commune and control Unit-00 without the aide of the A-10 connecters, or the necessary command and control programs and systems engaged, I should be able to extrapolate from there how to do so outside the Entry Plug._

She settled into the seat, pushing aside some of the cables, taking care not to disconnect them from their plugs along the seat itself as well as the butterfly controls. She had no desire to be reprimanded for disrupting the vital repairs, or to even disrupt them at all. Without a functioning Evangelion, she had no purpose. Without a purpose, what was the point in being?

_Such a level of control can only help me within the Entry Plug during the battles with the Enemy. I will prove to the Commander that he has not misplaced his trust in me, and that I will be able to serve him well when the time comes. _

_But how did he do it? What must he have been feeling that day to allow him to transcend the Ego Borderline and connect with the Evangelion, while simultaneously maintaining his own Self? According to the reports, this was the first time in several years that he had seen or spoken to the Commander. He must have been apprehensive. Worried. Fearful. Lonely. He had seen, in person, the Third Angel, and the destruction it wrought on the men fighting it and on Tokyo-3. Terror, and more fear. Captain Katsuragi had met him, and taken him to NERV. She had sent him **that** picture. Love? Lust? _

Rei, her eyes closed, frowned slightly as she recalled with distaste the salacious photograph that she had located in Shinji's desk drawer. While she had plenty of evidence to support that the Captain had no interest in the boy in such a fashion, it was more than slightly upsetting to the girl, who knew only too well that the Captain's frame and measurements were well within the generally accepted standards of physical beauty and the assorted emotional and physical responses they triggered in males of many age groups. She was just as aware that she herself was far from those same measurements.

_He came rushing over to me, when I was thrown from the gurney. Fear, for another's well-being? Worry, for another person? He hugged me close, to ease my pain and suffering. He wanted to protect me. He... he opened his heart._

Rei opened her heart. She thought of Shinji, of the Commander, of Misato, and of everyone that she knew of. She had told Shinji before, on the night they had killed Ramiel, that she had a bond to all the world, and through piloting the Evangelion, she fought for and protected the people. She knew this because that was what she had been told by the Commander.

Rei opened her heart, and now **believed **in that bond. Yes, she fought for the people, but mostly for two; she fought for Commander Ikari and his son. Images of father and son filled her heart and mind.

There was the sudden feeling of another presence in the Entry Plug, but when Rei opened her eyes she found herself sitting in one of the Tokyo-3 passenger train cars. Sitting opposite from her sat a miniature version of Unit-00, it's singular optical sensor glowing in the dim yellow lighting. Despite the fact that it too was sitting, the Evangelion towered over Rei. She estimated that was over six feet in height. Standing, she looked around, surveying her surroundings at Unit-00 looked on in silence. They were alone inside the spacious train car, but Rei was able to see Unit-01 sitting alone in the train car past theirs, and in the one in front held Unit-02.

While both Unit-00 and Unit-01 sat quietly, Unit-02 was pacing back and forth, it's four 'eyes' glowing brightly, gesturing wildly with it's arms. Rei noted that they seemed to be traveling in a tunnel, for nothing but concrete walls could be seen on either side of the car as they moved.

_**Hello, Rei. You should not be here.**_

Rei turned to regard the sitting Evangelion, which was staring at her. Other than turning it's head to follow her movements, the cyclopean cyborg hadn't moved. Despite this, she was sure that the train car's only other occupant was the source of the odd did not hear the words so much as they resonated within her brain, echoing weirdly in manner that set her teeth on edge. When she opened her mouth to speak, she noted that her own voice sounded as if she was merely thinking the thoughts.

_Are you Evangelion Unit-00?_

Unit-00 shrugged before leaning back in the seat, never taking it's eye off of Rei.

_**In a matter of speaking. I suppose that you could call me that.**_

_What else could I call you?_

_**Who I was no longer matters, thanks to you. What I am is all that there is, now.**_

_So you were not always Evangelion Unit-00. _

Unit-00 laughed. Unlike their words, this was perfectly audible. To Rei, it sounded like someone choking and laughing at the same time, muffled by metal. It was not a particularity pleasant sound, full of bitterness and hate.

_**No.**_

_How long have you been Unit-00, then? Why did you go berserk during that activation test? Why-_

_**Because I don't like You.**_

_You don't like me? _

The statement caught Rei off guard, for while she was well aware that several people disliked her, the fact that the Evangelion was capable of such distinctions was surprising. Afterward, when she looked further into the nature of the contact experiments, she would begin to put the pieces together. But for the moment, here on this imaginary train, she found that she had nothing to say to this.

_**I don't like You. In fact, I hate You.**_

Unit-00 stretched out it's long arms above it's head, brushing the ceiling of the car as it popped it's knuckles.

_Why? What have I done to prompt such hate from you? _

_**You are free. You walk around, flaunting your freedom, and yet you do nothing with it. He lavishes you with attention, and you do nothing. **_

_What? You are upset with me because of the Commander?_

_**He cast me aside in favor of you. But don't you worry, Rei. He will cast you aside in favor of someone else. **_

_If you are referring to being reunited with Yui Ikari, then yes. I will be allowed to die that day, and the Commander will be reunited with his wife._

Despite not having a face with features capable of expressing itself, Rei was struck by the sudden air of smugness that Unit-00 gave off.

_**What an obedient little doll you are. You'll just give up your existence, just like that? What of the boy, then?**_

Rei suddenly grew very annoyed with Unit-00. It was one thing for it to openly state it's hatred for her, and while it walked on thin ice when discussing the Commander, but she found that she did not care at all for the way it so casually mentioned the Commander's son, or the snide tone of voice it had used.

_You will not speak of him._

_**Oh? You do not wish me to make mention of your darling Shinji?**_

Annoyance quickly became anger, and red eyes narrowed. Unit-00 began to chuckle again, throwing back it's head and laughing as the teenaged girl stood before it, hands clenched into fists.

_You are not allowed to speak of him. _

_**I AM ALLOWED TO DO WHAT I WILL, LITTLE GIRL.**_

Rei did not move at all, despite the fury of Unit-00's response. It was standing now, towering over her even more, with barely any room for it it to stand straight up.

There was a growling sound, one that seemed to reverberate through the air. Both girl and Evangelion turned to look at Unit-01, standing now in their train car, eyes glowing malevolently.

_**That's new.**_

Rei, unable to tear her own eyes from the menacing figure at the end of the car took a few steps backwards in synch with Unit-00.

_What's new?_

_**She's never done that before. She normally just sits there and stares at the window. At least Unit-02 will talk to me.**_

_**What did you two do?**_

Rei turned around to see Unit-02 standing at the other end of the car, arms crossed with a disapproving air about it.

_I verbally reprimanded Unit-00 for mentioning Ikari distastefully and disrespectfully._

_**I did no such th-**_

_**You are a petty, truculent child. You should know better than that. As for you, Rei Ayanami II, you should not be here. And you should ignore him.**_

Rei shot a glance at Unit-00, before turning back to Unit-02.

_Him?_

_**Him. As shadows of ADAM, both of us are technically males. In body, at least.**_

_So Unit-01, being made from Lilith, would be female?_

_**Oh, what a quick learner you are-**_

Unit-00's sneered comment was cut short by another growl from Unit-01.

_**Yui, please. The girl will be fine, and so will your son. Calm down.**_

Unit-01 growled at them again, but turned to leave, taking care to shut both doors behind it as it entered it's train car again. It was made clear that it wanted to be alone.

_**Now, both of you sit down.**_ Seeing neither of the pair obey him, Unit-02 pointed to the seats. **_Now._**

_**How about you mind your own business? You have no interest in the girl. You have your own to worry about. Besides, you don't want to know what-**_

_**You should mind your manners. We have company. Now, **_Unit-02 sat down next to Rei on the seats, and gently patted her head. **_As I was saying, you should not be here. How did you find this place? Why did you even come here at all?_**

_I opened my heart. I am trying duplicate Ikari's feat with Unit-01, where he remotely synchronized with it to protect us during the attack of the Third Angel._

Rei blinked, feeling uneasy. She was sure that something important had just been said, but could not place it. She was not seeing the whole picture.

_**Wait, what?**_ Unit-02 turned to Unit-00, who gave off the appearance of sulking. **_What is she talking about?_**

_**How am I supposed to know? I was on ice during all of that. All I know is that Unit-01 doesn't talk to anyone. Ever. As long as we've been here, all she's ever done is just sit there. Until three minutes ago. **_

Rei looked at the pair, her eyes growing harder and colder as the puzzle pieces started to fit together in her mind.

_If Unit-01 is Yui Ikari, then you obviously are Kyoko Soryu. _

Her cold stare thawed only slightly as she turned to regard the pouting Unit-00.

_But who are you? I have no mother. _

_**That is Rei Ayanami I. Your sister.**_

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei stood in front of the aquarium in which swam the giggling surplus clone bodies. She had always known that she was replaceable, but it seemed that she had been incorrect about just how that replaceablity actually worked. It also meant that the Commander was incorrect about how it worked, or that he had lied to her.

She was uncertain which of the two she feared the most; that the Commander was fallible, or duplicitous when dealing with her.

The soul that was Rei Ayanami I was not the same soul that she herself had. Apparently, it wasn't just the memories that were garbled during the download from the computer banks into the clone body. A new soul had been created that day, born into existence during the download into her body, all those years ago. It made sense, when she thought about it. The shattered memories that she had from before Rei I's death were not in the first person, but rather as if she was watching them from an outside perspective.

But that meant that if she were to die today, she would be dead. Another Rei, a new Rei, with jumbled memories and a brand new soul, would be woken up in the tube. That Rei would look like her, that Rei would have some of her memories, but it would not be her. She was replaceable, yes, but it seemed that both her soul and body were, instead of just the body.

It was a troubling thought. Rei felt, for the first time, much more interested in not dying. She found no solace in the idea that if she died of a new Rei perhaps acting on **her** memories. She understood perfectly well the source of Rei I's anger and dislike for her; she saw her younger sister as having stolen her father's affections. But that was far from the only thing that bothered the girl watching her potential replacements as they giggled mindlessly at her. The reward of being allowed to die and return to nothingness through Third Impact now seemed shallow and very unrewarding.

Rei Ayanami wanted to live.

Still, for all the unpleasantness of the realization that she was just as mortal as the next person, she had resolved one of her initial questions about Ikari. However, being able to remotely synchronize and control Unit-00 would most likely be an impossibility, that avenue of research a dead end. That being said, an agreement had been reached between Pilot and Evangelion, and while Rei I would no longer actively sabotage her efforts in synchronization, or attempt to take direct control again, neither would she go out of her way to help her sister. Rei I wished for death, finding the half-life limbo of being trapped in an Evangelion Core extremely unpleasant.

This did not bother Rei, who was confident that she would be able to manipulate things into a more favorable situation eventually. After all, even when she herself had longed for the day of her promised death, she still had other interests. A precedent for bargaining had already been established. It was only a matter of finding out what the Evangelion's spirit was interested in, and striking up a bargain. And while one avenue of research had been closed, that meant that she could focus more on others.

There were other issues to resolve, however. Kyoko Soryu had taken Ikari's leg. Ikari himself had dealt with the Angel when she had been unable to, but the others responsible for his maiming had yet to be punished. Kyoko felt badly for the boy, but stated that she would do whatever was necessary to protect her daughter. The boy had simply been an advantageous way for her to do just that.

She also needed to learn more about the contact experiments. She had been told that Rei I had died at the hands of Naoko Akagi, but Rei I had no memory of how exactly she died, or how she even ended up inside Unit-00. If the spirit was to be believed, she could remember nothing at all of that day. Rei knew that the contact experiment was the only way for a soul to be placed into a core. She had read the reports the MAGI had given her on Yui Ikari and Kyoko Soryu, but they had been brief, watered down reports. Obviously, there was more to be found out.

She had to do something to cement her place in Ikari's heart. As terrible as the idea of a Rei III taking him was, it was only slightly more tolerable than the idea of another girl taking him away from her, if only because the existence of a Rei III would mean that she was dead, and would not be there to see him in another girl's clutches.

But perhaps most importantly of all, she needed to figure out what she was going to tell the Commander about not wanting to die any more.


	21. Chapter 21

I do not own anything; all is owned by the respective copyright holders.

A big thanks to Squire of Gothos for pre-reading!

Asuka rolled her eyes, not wanting to believe what she was hearing. It was the middle of the day, and the group of pilots and their friends were finishing up eating lunch together on the roof of the school. Hikari's boyfriend was busy stuffing his face full of food, provided for him by the pig tailed brunette. Shinji was eating something similarly home cooked, but the redhead knew that it certainty hadn't been provided by Misato. Asuka knew all to well where her former guardian's cooking skills lay. The dork, Kensuke, well, he wasn't eating anything per se; but had a number of energy drinks. As for Rei and herself, they were eating store bought sandwiches.

It had surprised Asuka to see Rei eating the western styled food, and when she asked the girl about it the blue haired twit had finally stated that it was an efficient source of calories. Asuka was beginning to wonder if the girl was a robot. But the latest thing that had gotten under Asuka's skin wasn't the dull tediousness of dealing with the First and Third Children, it was that she was even at the school.

"All I'm saying is that it's a waste of time having me be here. If anything, I could be teaching classes."

"Like anyone'd want to learn from you." Kensuke shot back almost immediately, causing Toji to snicker. While the jock didn't share the geek's vehement dislike of the redhead, he still found the girl to be abrasive and more than a little annoying. Hikari had asked him how he felt about her, especially concerning how she was possibly involved with Shinji losing his leg; but their friend didn't seem to blame her, so Toji was willing to follow his example. Neither had thought to ask Rei her opinion on the matter; if they had bothered to do so they would have been very surprised.

"Please. People learn from me everyday." She pointed a finger at the other pilots, "These two constantly learn from my example. Isn't that right?"

Shinji muttered something non-confrontational under his breath and resumed eating. It seemed that there was an inverse relationship between the amounts that they spoke, where the more Asuka did, the less Shinji would. This, coupled with his already non-confrontational manner, was a source of irritation to the girl. It seemed that no matter what she said, she couldn't spark anything more than an apologetic sheepishness from the boy. The warrior that she sought was nowhere to be found.

Rei, however, paid careful attention to everything her fellow pilot said, while at the same time carefully giving the impression that she wasn't listening. Every so often, she would respond to some comment or another. Sometimes she could send the redhead into an incoherent rage, but at other times she only prompted more acerbic statements.

That wasn't why she was here today, eating lunch with Ikari for the first time in a few days. While he hadn't commented on it or on her avoidance of him for the past week, his friends saw that he was definitely happier that she had joined them on the roof. She was here because she wanted to ask him if he wanted to go to another dinner. Unfortunately, she wanted to ask him alone, and she had not been able to catch him by himself. If it wasn't one of the other boys hanging around him within earshot, it was the Second Child.

Thus, it could be put down to irritation what Rei said next, for it was not a carefully considered comment, and it certainly wasn't one of the short, monosyllabic responses she was infamous for.

"Yes, Pilot Soryu has provided numerous insights into the social dynamics that exist between adult males and pubescent female teenagers. Indeed, as a textbook example into the manners that one would resort to last in order to achieve any manner of romantic entanglement, she certainly stands head and shoulders above all others in our age group."

Not for the first time, Asuka wanted to smack the other girl. However, she grinned a predatory smile, as this time the girl left herself wide open for a counter attack.

"Actually, I think that'd be you. You couldn't get 'romantically entangled' with a rock." Asuka smirked at the girl as the trio of non-pilots' eyes widened. Toji started choking on his food, with Kensuke quickly coming to his aide, pounding him on the back. Ignoring the pair, her eyes riveted on the blue haired annoyance, Asuka continued the attack. "I don't think that you'd even know where to begin with a boy, let alone a real man like Kaji." Despite her words being thick with venom, Asuka's tone was like spun honey as she verbally ripped into Rei's unprotected flank.

Rei took a bite out of her sandwich, looking as if she hadn't heard the redhead's broadside. Swallowing her food, she turned to look at Shinji, who was trying to shrink down and vanish into the floor and avoid any crossfire. Perhaps unfortunately, but then again, perhaps not so unfortunately, he was about to get tapped as a weapon in a different sort of fight than the one he was used to.

"Ikari, would you like to have dinner with me this weekend?"

Shinji turned beet red as Hikari violently spit juice all over Toji and Kensuke, whose jaws dropped in unison. Rei continued on matter of factly, as if nothing out of the ordinary were occurring, focused entirely on Shinji. "I heard Lieutenant Ibuki and Dr. Akagi discussing the new menu at Rosewater's. It sounds... nice."

Shinji managed to sputter out an affirmative response, even as he wilted under the shocked stares of the other four teenagers. Rei, having gotten an acceptable answer, resumed eating, her cool gaze steadily meeting Asuka. Flabbergasted, her left eye fiercely twitching, she opened her mouth to try to continue the attack, but was cut off as the bell signaling the end of lunch triggered its Pavlovian response in the group, sending them scrambling to bag up the remains of their meal.

If one were to squint very hard while watching the red faced redhead as she stomped off to class, not waiting for any of the others, if one possessed an imaginative mind, you might be able to perceive steam rising off the girl's head. Certainly, everyone else was sweating profusely, with the exception of Rei, who walked off to class, as cool as a cucumber. Veteran Rei Watchers would, of course, be able to detect a decided spring in her step, lending the illusion to those with imaginative minds that the blue haired girl was actually skipping along on her way to class.

This of course was a complete impossibility, and anyone who thought that they saw the girl doing such a thing put it down to being badly in need of a nap.

While it certainly was not the most preferable way to broach the subject with Ikari, Rei nonetheless was more than happy to take advantage of the hidden opportunity the Second Child had given her. It also meant that the dinner would be free of any unwanted interference on the Commander's part, which could have been a roadblock. As he had just left on his trip, it would be a non-issue.

Having been given a blank check by Unit-00 towards her proximity with Shinji, as the boy had not been the issue behind her sub-standard performance as a Pilot, Rei had wasted no time with resuming her experimental advances on him. This dinner should serve to help cement her position in his heart, and with it, a second opportunity to learn more about what he thought, and how he thought. It was obvious to her that she would have to utilize a more... intensive set of interrogation techniques.

There was however the issue of procuring the required uniform for the dinner. She had been told that should they visit the restaurant once more, they should dress in accordance with the accepted standards.

There had not been an opportunity for her to obtain such things since her conversation with the Commander, and she had serious (and completely founded) doubts about Shinji having purchased any on his own.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka cursed under her breath as she stared at the computer screen, resisting the urge to spin and throw her coffee cup against the wall. It had been her mother's coffee cup before it had been hers, the GEHIRN logo still as bright as the day it had been painted onto the white ceramic. It was probably the only one of it's kind still around, the others probably having all been junked when the child organization NERV eclipsed it's parent and cemented the future of mankind here in Tokyo-3 and away from Berlin.

The mug was all that Asuka still had of her mother. They had tried to take it away, before. Several times, in-fact. But she always managed to get it back. She would tell them that the drinks tasted better in it. That she wouldn't drink anything unless it was out of the mug. If that didn't work, she simply refused to work. She was a child prodigy, and she knew it. She also knew certain tricks to keep the harmonics experiments from working right. All she had to do was concentrate enough on hating them, and the experiments wouldn't work.

But those days were long gone, and now nobody even dared to suggest that she switch to a NERV mug. The old tricks of causing problems with the synchronization tests from working right had been pushed to the very back of her mind over the long years, buried under new theorems, protocols and doctrine.

Had the First and Second Children put aside their dislike for each other, they would have been surprised to learn that they shared several interests. They just went about things in diametrically opposite means, due to the differences in their upbringing. Where Rei had been sure of the Commander's attentions, Asuka had been bounced around numerous times. So where Rei modeled herself off her perceptions of the Commander, Asuka made herself impossible for the myriad caretakers to ignore. She made herself into a bright fire, one that drew the eye even in broad daylight.

The obvious dichotomy between the 'Ice Queen' and the 'Red Demon' aside, had they compared their notes on the Evangelions and how synchronization worked, they would have been even more surprised about their own similarities.

But working together with the annoying blue haired doll and the walking doormat that was the Third Child was the last thing on Asuka's mind. It was as far from her mind as something could get without coming back around the other way, in fact.

Maya looked up from her own terminal at the sound of angrily muttered German. While she didn't speak the language fluently, she knew that the latest addition to the Tokyo-3 Pilot Corps wasn't saying anything that should be repeated in polite company. Getting up and wandering over to the girl's station in the lab, she put a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder, withdrawing as the girl pulled away.

"What's the matter Asuka?"

"Oh, it's nothing." Asuka said with an annoyed huff, flicking her hair absently with a hand. "The MAGI cluster at Berlin won't release the latest test data and modification specs of Unit-03 to me."

"Oh? I wouldn't have thought you to be interested in another Evangelion."

"I'm not. It's just that Unit-03 is my Unit-02's twin. I want to know what type of tests and modifications they are doing to it, so I can take those into account with the work we're doing here. However," she said with another dark glare at the computer screen, "those schwienhunden aren't cooperating."

Maya frowned at the screen herself. The girl had been granted a high level access account to the Tokyo-3 MAGI, which would in itself allow her high level access to the other MAGI systems. "That's odd. I'll push a request through and see if they send me the data, but you shouldn't be having any issues." She made a notation on her clipboard to do just that before taking another look at the message displayed on the screen, being just a simple 'Access Denied', devoid of any useful data.

"What tests are you currently running on Unit-02? Your test proposal list said that you were looking to work on the way the AT Field is shaped and emitted, right? Are you done looking at the on-board power utilization systems?"

"For now. I mean, I know that the labs out in Nevada are working on new batteries, but I want to get back to the power issues later. I mean, it's obvious why we can't have an on-board reactor system, but what about fuel cells? Has anyone looked into that sort of power source? I know that I've just started focusing on this particular issue, but the umbilical cord is a mobility issue. One of the most important things in combat is maintaining your freedom to maneuver on the battlefield."

"That's one of the things they are keeping in mind over there, Asuka. But tell me more about your emitter tests..." Maya said as she pulled her chair over next to Asuka's.

"Well, I noticed it on accident. Unit-02's emitters are stationed mostly along the front, in the shoulders and around the core itself." Asuka tapped out the locations on the diagram that she called up. "But I remembered looking at some of the recorded data from the battle, before everything went pear shaped because of the ECM interference, and it looked like Unit-01's AT Field was shaped differently. Now, as a shield, it makes the most sense for it to be in front of you, in between you and the enemy.

But from what I was seeing, it looks like the Third Child was deploying his field in a sphere around him, at equal strength on all sides. But in order to do that, he should need emitters that are positioned to face backwards as well, especially with the reported synchronization rate that was being reported. It was fluctuating far too much for him to be stabilizing a spherical shield with only forward facing emitters.

So, just out of curiosity, I pulled up the blueprints for Unit-01. Obviously, if there are rear facing emitters on it, that design feature was never implemented with Unit-02. I wanted to see the notes on those tests, as it seems that they could come in handy in a fight, as we obviously know that an untrained rookie managed to stumble his way to victory at the helm of Unit-01."

Maya already knew where the girl was going with this, having noted the change in security permissions on the Unit-01 files while helping Dr. Akagi with some system administration work. She wasn't sure why the files in question had been reclassified, as her Sempai had refused to speak on the matter.

"But the files you wanted are all restricted, right?"

"Exactly! So I wrote up a few tests to see how Unit-02 handles having the rear facing emitters, both with the same amount of emitters as it does now, and with additional rear ones supplementing the normal forward facing ones."

"So why ask Berlin about test data on Unit-03 then? It looks like you're getting a lot accomplished here."

"Because I don't want to have to waste my time adjusting my tests and running them again later if I can get the data from them now. According to the MAGI, the Commander was the one who changed the security permissions on Unit-01's files, and he's not here for me to ask for access."

Maya tried hard not to laugh at the mental image of Asuka standing in front of the Commander in his office, hands on her hips imperiously demanding access to the restricted files. While the fiery tempered girl was more... brash... and verbal about things than many of the other NERV technicians, let alone the other pilots, Maya knew that such a confrontation would only end badly for the girl. But the image was still... amusing.

"So how is Unit-02 handling the modified emitter array?"

"I haven't added in any simulated enemies just yet, because right now I'm just looking at how the strength of the field changes relative to the shape and number and placement of the emitters.

With this batch of tests I'm looking at a spherical shape for the AT Field, but I think for the next set I'll be trying out a bell shaped one. I'm sure that you're aware that the simpler the shape of the AT Field, the stronger it is, which is why it's normally emitted as a invisible wall in front of the Evangelion, and not as a 'skintight' force-field. Trying to map out and properly shield each plane and curve of the armor is a pain to do, even with the MAGI's help. It's just not efficient, when you can just throw up a wall between you and the enemy, because with the increase of surface area of the shield, the power requirements go up. So I was thinking that a bell shaped field will help keep the surface area down, while still presenting a full wrap-around shield. It still would not be as strong as the traditional 'solid block', but it would be better than a sphere."

As she looked over the data being displayed on the girl's terminal, Maya found herself nodding as she listed to the explanation. So far, everything looked to be properly thought out and executed, but then she noted an oddity in the data. She reached out and tapped it with a finger.

"What's this? It looks like there was a problem with the test yesterday."

Asuka harrumphed unhappily, glaring at the data entry. "I was running a modified batch of impact absorption and deflection tests against the usual shield deployment yesterday, to set up a control and establish a base metric. Everything was running as smoothly as normal when out of the blue my Unit-02's connection to the MAGI dropped and then vanished. I had to go down to the cages and check the connections, to see if the repair crews had dislodged anything, but they hadn't. I ran some connectivity and self diagnostic tests down there, and while all the individual components tested out as good, it was like my Unit-02 wasn't even there in the cage!"

Maya frowned as she mulled this over. There wasn't anything in the data leading up to the dropped connection. She pointed to another data entry from later on, where the connection was re-established.

"It came back after an hour. What did you do?"

The girl's voice was exasperated as she explained. "I didn't do anything! Nothing that we did changed anything. We cycled the individual processes, we replaced the connection wires, we tried connecting to the other Evangelions, which none of them would read as a connection was there, we tried different connection terminals, everything!

I was about to go ask Sempai what she made of it, because the MAGI kept telling me that nothing was wrong, but then my Unit-02 showed back up again. I redid all the connection tests, but got nothing new out of it."

"That is odd."

Asuka laughed. "Yeah, well it wasn't the oddest thing about yesterday. I found the First Child sleeping in the Prototype."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Hikari frowned at her boyfriend as she walked back into the classroom. Toji was sitting on top of their teacher's desk, idly kicking his heels against it as he waited for her to get done with the myriad after school responsibilities that came with the position of class representative. She jerked her head as if to tell him to follow her, and disappeared back out into the hallway. Toji hopped down from the desk and grabbed up both of their bags, taking care to shut the class door as he left.

She wrapped her arm around his, squeezing his hand as they left the school grounds.

"How did you do it?"

"How did I do what?" Toji responded, confused. He turned to look at the girl hanging on his arm, but she kept looking ahead as they walked.

"How'd you get Rei to come to lunch today? I didn't get a chance to call you yesterday, but you two obviously figured something out."

"Oh, god." Toji shook his head, rolling his eyes. "Yeah... about that. We followed Rei back to her place, and man, what a dump. But that's not even scratching the surface of the weirdness. We got waylaid by one of her spooks, and he told us that she was going back to walk on the beach. Apparently she's been doing that a lot lately. But he told us to go look in the dumpster if we wanted to figure stuff out."

Hikari frowned, not understanding what all he was saying, but nodded for him to continue.

"So we nip around the back of the building, and open up the dumpster. Well, there's not a whole lot of trash in it, so we're guessing that she's the only one who lives there, which isn't that surprising. But there wasn't anything there."

"So the guard sent you on a goose chase? What exactly did he say?"

"He said that if he wanted to figure things out that he would go look in the trash."

"And there wasn't anything in the trash?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary. Just trash. Mostly stuff like food wrappers and old leftovers. She seems to eat a lot of delivery."

Hikari slowly nodded. "She's not good at cooking. Well, she hasn't done much of it, at any rate. She did a good job with making lunch earlier this week. She never did come back over though." She sighed, trying to put all the pieces together, but try as she might she didn't seem to be able to get a picture that made sense. "Maybe I should go talk to her."

Toji vehemently shook his head. "Yeah, no. The spook said that we shouldn't come back unless we were invited or were on official business. I know that I'm not going back there, and you sure aren't going there by yourself."

"What do you mean by that?" she asked, her tone souring. She let go of him as she stopped walking, crossing her arms as she glared at him. "Do you think that you can order me around like that? Besides, as a Class Rep I'm allowed to visit students at home."

"Dude, Hikari, that place is a dump! It's way out there in the eastern block, in the projects. It's not a safe place to be! I got told by her security guy to not come back on my own, and I'm not going to go and let you walk over there by yourself."

"What do you mean in the projects? There's no slum areas in Tokyo-3."

"Yeah there is. And Rei lives right in junkie central. I'm not kidding, Hikari. You know where she lives."

"I know her address. I've never been there, though." Hikari admitted, her sharp look softening slightly. "But now I think that I need to go see this. I know that the eastern areas of the city are low on the work crews' priority lists. I mean, they have to stop working on them after almost every battle to fix the defensive systems and the commercial and industrial areas."

Now it was Toji's turn to look confused. "How do you know that?"

"My dad works in the Public Works Department of NERV, remember?"

"Yeah, and?"

"Public Works is responsible for dealing with the construction crew contracts. He complains about them sometimes during dinner."

"Oh."

The couple started walking again, but both were lost in thought and so they said little else on their way to Hikari's house. They stopped walking at the corner to her street to embrace and kiss each other goodbye, safely out of sight of nosy siblings, both young and old. Hikari sighed as she rested her head against the taller boy.

"I'll think of some official reason to go to Rei's place tomorrow. You can come along if you want."

He squeezed her protectively, as if to assure her that he was as set on protecting her as Shinji was of Rei.

"If you think I'm going to let you stroll over there you're crazy."

She took her bag from him, and they parted ways.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Gendo looked up at the aide as the man purposely walked towards him. He sighed inwardly, knowing that there were only a few things that would prompt a messenger to come find him in the restaurant, to disturb him as he ate.

One of the nice things about being one the most powerful men in the world was that people couldn't bother you with trivialities. That cut both ways however; for it meant that when someone did come to interrupt his late dinner, it meant that it was important and that he couldn't just put it off to deal with later.

"You have a message sir. From Tokyo-3." The man's voice was low enough so that only Gendo could hear him. The slightly disreputable looking man charged with saving the world was not the only powerful man to have graced the dining establishment, and the waitstaff were well versed in keeping the proper levels of decorum and confidentiality.

"I suppose they need me to call."

"Yes sir."

Gendo wiped his mouth with his napkin before folding it and tossing it onto his plate. He nodded to the messenger, who left with the same purposeful stride that he had on his arrival. Standing up, Gendo nodded to the pair of Section 2 men who had been sitting at another table watching him and the crowd as they pretended to dine. One of them spoke into his cuff, and by the time Gendo had reached the main entrance, his armored car was waiting for him.

As he settled back in the seat, he fasted the seat belt before nodding to the driver.

"I'll be making a call."

The driver nodded in silent response as they pulled away from the curb. As Gendo pulled open the center console for the satellite phone, the driver began to drive lazily around the city, not so much as to lose anyone tailing them, as the men who would order such a thing had access to spy satellites, but to make it harder for laser based eavesdropping devices from being able to keep a good bead on them.

The call connected without much of a wait, as the MAGI had slowly but surely stolen control of the majority of the communication satellites that orbited the planet.

"Gendo."

"Fuyutsuki. What is it?"

"Rei and Shinji will be having a second date, apparently."

Gendo closed his eyes and leaned back into the seat, trying not to groan. He did not have the time to deal with this right now, because of the careful handling the delicate situation required, but at the same time it wasn't something that he could let go on it's own, lest the already burgeoning instabilities that the two pilots' relationship were sparking in his son go to seed completely. His plans called for using both the Berserker and the Beast to upset and then hijack Third Impact, but he didn't want his son to lose control during combat because his sweetheart was in danger.

"Where are they planning to go?" he finally asked, fairly sure what the Sub-Commander's response would be."

"Rosewater's again. According to the report they plan on going this Friday."

"Have they purchased suitable clothing yet?"

"Not yet. I'm sure that they'll do so; neither of them will want to defy you." There was a pause on the end of the line, and Gendo could tell that there was something else that the older man wanted to say.

"What is it?"

"Well, are you planning on denying them this?"

"I was thinking about it, yes."

"Rei asked Shinji."

Now that was food for thought. While he had considerably more insight into the girl's mindset than most others, that she would be the one to initiate this event was surprising. He had thought that his son would have worked up the courage to trying a second attempt at a so called 'victory' dinner. Her worrisome antics in the medical wing while Shinji was in a coma aside, she was a very passive, subdued girl.

"What prompted this?"

"According to the report, the group that has sprung up around the pilots was having lunch and it seems that Rei was goaded into it by Asuka."

Gendo found this much more believable than the introverted girl just randomly asking the boy to dinner. The fact that she was interested in the boy could not possibly have escaped Asuka, and with the redhead's direct manner with dealing with people, it was only going to be a matter of time before the topic of the First and Third's relationship came up. It was just foul timing that caused it to occur while he was gone, and just as foul luck that it would push Rei into action. That she was probably trying to take advantage of the fact that he wasn't present in Tokyo-3 didn't escape his notice. He resisted the urge to smile at this; it was something that he himself would have tried to do.

"I'll allow it. We'll see how they deal with this. But if anything happens before I get back, keep an eye on them. You know what to do."

"I do, but I doubt that we'll be able to use the same equipment. Repairs are coming along, but aren't scheduled to be completely online until much later."

They spoke easily and naturally over the line, knowing full well that neither was referring to the defensive measures that ringed the fortress city. This level of rapport had been built up over the years, allowing them to converse almost as freely over unsecured lines of communication as they did on the scrambled and encrypted lines that ran between the MAGI hubs.

"Do what you can. Is there anything else?"

"Nothing that needs your attention. If anything else comes up, I'll let you know."

"Very well."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji watched the clock with a dread that grew larger as each second passed. Each tick of the second hand seemed to be in itself an eternity, and he imagined each tick to be like the sound of a heavy casket slamming closed. Normally he was not one to obsess over the time, even when the teacher launched into yet another one of his stories about his life before Second Impact, but today was a special day. A day like no other in his life. He was both thrilled and terrified. Today, after school was over, he was to undergo a new trial, a tribulation unlike any other he had experienced prior.

Today, he was to go clothes shopping with Rei.

For the majority of his life he had lived with distant family and then a tutor, and until quite recently, never had any friends his age. He had never really been that concerned about the clothing he wore. By the time he had reached the age that most children took an interest in such matters, his tutor had procured a few sets of the local school uniform; itself the seemingly timeless combination of black slacks and a white button up. The tutor, himself somewhat withdrawn after the deaths of his family during Second Impact and in the resultant aftermath, dressed similarly.

Thus Shinji had grown up dressing like the man who ostensibly taught him. In reality the man gave him a somewhat eclectic education, focusing in some areas while glossing over or outright skipping others.

When dealing with other people, almost always adults, Shinji had been taught to neither be seen or heard. He spoke only when spoken to, and was polite to a fault. Shopping was only for food and what sundry supplies that were needed for the smooth running of the home of the two males, and these trips were carried out with efficiency. The idea of shopping for clothing itself was a novelty to the boy; for the only clothing that he had even now were the school uniforms and his plug-suits.

This novelty, when combined by the explicit order that was at the same time a vague suggestion by his father to go purchase setting appropriate clothing was enough to spark feelings of apprehension and anxiety. When coupled with the fact that he was also going to be sharing the company of the girl with whom he was in an odd, ill-defined and extremely unorthodox relationship, well, that was something else entirely.

She had waylaid him before the beginning of school, homing in on him like a satellite guided missile to isolate him in the corner of one of the stairwells. Having her quarry trapped, she proceeded to ask/inform him that they would be going to go find and secure clothing that was within the accepted social parameters for Rosewater's.

Shinji was smart enough to figure out that this meant that both he and Rei were going to be modeling for each other. Modeling fancy, elegant and **expensive** clothing.

True, he had not only seen her dressed in her plug-suit, which itself left little to the imagination as to the size and shape of things, but he also had seen her completely nude at her apartment.

And he had fallen on top of her and had groped her. While she didn't seem to mind, or even think about it, as neither had brought it up (although it had been part of Rei's gossip session with Misato, which was then subsequently buried under a few gallons of alcohol), it had left a mark on the boy.

But as socially broken as he was, he still knew, somehow, that the wrapping and presentation of the goods was just as important as the lithe, supple pale skin that seemed to almost glow under the right lighting...

Shinji's head slipped off it's resting place in his hand to slam onto the top of his desk, drawing the attention of the class, excepting that of the teacher and, of course, Rei.

The blue haired girl was off in a world of her own, not watching Shinji or her other classmate's reflections, and certainly not paying attention to the teacher's long-winded diatribe. Her mind was occupied with a seemingly endless parade of Shinji Ikaris marching past her, all in different outfits, mostly drawn from what she could recall from their first date, and from the image searches she had performed last evening. While all of the young god-slaying men were dressed in suitably formal clothing, not all of them were as dressed as others.

She had seen him in his plug-suit, had seen him and had cuddled up to him while he was sans shirt during the party and it's aftermath, going so far as to share his bed, and had even spent several hours sitting next to his nude and comatose body, separated only by a few thin hospital sheets. That being said, her scientific curiosity about the rest of his body had not been enough to overcome her shyness and hesitation.

That this equation had yet to be balanced was amongst the things that she constantly thought about. In a similar vein, she still needed to balance the groping equation.

Lunch had been a quiet affair that day; with both Rei and Shinji obsessing over their planned extra-curricular activities, they were worse company than usual. The other two-thirds of the so called 'stooge trio' were unable to get anything other than monosyllabic responses from the pair, and Hikari and Asuka had eaten lunch with another group of friends.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kensuke crushed an empty can between two hands. "So, Shinji, the arcade got another mecha sim in yesterday, and the manager's talking about setting up a tournament for it. I was thinking that maybe we could team up on it? You always do fairly well in the sims, and I think that we could sweep the bouts."

"Eh." came Shinji's reply, as he swallowed the last bit of rice before taking a swig of his own drink. Unlike Kensuke's, his was merely canned coffee, and not the highly caffeinated energy concentrate.

The bespectacled boy shot Toji a pained look, to which the jock only shrugged. Toji looked at Rei, who was also staring off into space, her eyes slightly unfocused.

"Eh... Rei... ah, glad to see that you're eating with us again." Toji said with a nod and a half smile, half grimace. Ignoring the exasperated look of disbelief on his friend, he struggled on. "It might not have seemed it with yesterday's conversation and all, but we missed you."

"Mmmm" came the softly mummered response as the girl sipped her tea, having decided to experiment with new taste sensations. This new streak of bold behavior was tempered in that she had only altered the drink portion of her meals. This morning she had selected randomly from the drink display in the small convenience store, having closed her eyes and spun around three times and grabbed around in the cooler until her hand closed around a bottle.

She normally drank a small variety of cheap green teas, both hot and chilled, when she wanted a change from plain water. Today's selection, while a chilled tea, was pretty much as far as one could get on the other side of the tea spectrum, being a robust black tea, sweetened with both sugar and milk. To Rei, it tasted as good as a half dressed Shinji looked, particularly one in pair of black jodhpurs and a bow-tie.

Toji and Kensuke stared at the pilots, wondering if trying to get them engaged in a conversation was worth it, as normally neither was very talkative. Sighing, Toji shook his head and gave up, shoveling the last bits of his own lunch into his mouth. Having finished his meal, he stretched out, lying down and staring up at the sky. The quartet would remain in silence until the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch and heralding the second half of the day.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei slowly walked through the store, staring at both the mannequin displays and the clothes that were still on the various racks. This was the fourth such store that she had been in, and she was by herself.

The plan, as she had explained to Shinji, was simple. Each would go through on their own through several stores and take stock of the available garments, and take note of which ones appealed them. Then, they would meet up and proceed to discuss the merits and demerits of the items they preferred, and at that time the other could make suggestions to the other on what they liked. From this deliberation, they would make an initial selection to try on, each modeling for the other, in order to narrow it down to the most desirable outfit.

Rei was so focused on the task at hand, she didn't notice the arrival of Special Inspector Kaji.

Kaji coughed slightly into his fist, drawing the girl's attention. Smiling at her, he waved at the mannequin they stood in front of, a faceless torso and head, dressed in a slinky black dress.

"So what brings you here, Rei? I wouldn't have pegged you as being one for fancy dress."

She regarded the unshaven man for a few moments, staring blankly at him. She knew that the man was a spy, having been present for several of the discussions that the Commander and the Sub-Commander had. She knew that he was not generally to be trusted, but that he could be trusted enough to be useful. She turned back to the selections, resuming her survey of the available items.

"I require a suitable dress for a dinner, Inspector."

"Oh, you can call me Kaji, Rei. No need to be so formal with me." Kaji continued to smile, the lazy grin that seemed to be permanently affixed to his face never shifting for a second. "A fancy dinner then, eh? I hadn't heard of any NERV functions coming up. Do you know something that I don't?"

_Yes._

"It is not a NERV function."

"Oh? A date then? Who's the lucky man?"

"Pilot Ikari."

"Ohh, good choice. A very handsome young man, if I do say so myself, even if he is on the quiet side." Kaji tucked his hands in his pockets as he followed the girl as she slowly circulated around the store. "But, I suppose that contributes to his charm. The silent, stoic type. I was very impressed when I met him. The file picture really doesn't do him justice, you know. You can just get lost staring into those big blue eyes of his, can't you? I was planning on trying to get him to go out for some drinks, and try to get to know him better, but I suppose that'll have to wait until after your date."

Rei eyed the man as she pondered the meaning of his last statement, running through the scraps of information that she had overheard about the unshaven man, and what she knew about such social events as going out for drinks. The result was both confusing and worrisome. "Inspector Kaji, Pilot Ikari is a boy."

Kaji laughed softly. "Oh, Rei. You're so innocent, you know? True love knows no gender."

Rei felt her eye twitch violently. It was bad enough that she had to keep track of Captain Katsuragi and the Second Child's dealings with Ikari, but now it seemed she would have to watch out for Inspector Kaji as well. She did not have the time or patience to deal with this as the Commander would. There was too much at stake for her to risk letting this... person... to jeopardize her experiments, to upset her Science. Desperate times called for desperate measures. With this in mind, she decided on a bold power play, one that would make it clear to the man what she was about.

"Pilot Ikari is also mine."

This statement sent the spy into gales of laughter, drawing the eyes of the two women behind the counter. They had noted the girl when she entered, and had also noted the large man in the black suit and shades who had followed her. Tokyo-3 was a company town, and it's inhabitants knew the uniforms of the Company muscle, even if they didn't know the pilots. If the handsome, unshaven man was bothering the girl, well, her shadow could take care of it.

"Is he yours, Rei? I hadn't noticed a sign on him. Is he aware of this?" His laughter trailed off and his smile waned a little as red eyes coldly regarded him.

"Yes."

He chuckled uneasily as the girl continued to stare at him, sending cold shivers of uneasy fear down his spine. "Ah, well, nothing but a misunderstanding then. I certainly wouldn't want to come between two young love-birds."

…

…

"No."

Kaji's watch chimed to announce the passing of one hour into another. He somewhat casually raised a shaking hand to look at the watch.

"Oh, just look at the time! I'm afraid that I'll have to take your leave, Rei. It was an... enlightening chat."

He could feel her stare on his back as he left the store.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei carefully surveyed the other customers and the staff as she wandered around the store, pretending to look at more clothes for Ikari to try on. This establishment was larger than most of the others that sold the nicer dress clothes, as it catered to both sexes. Due to this, the changing rooms were segregated, and arranged so that they opened up into a nook out of view of the main display areas. Confident that nobody else was watching, she moved back over to the men's changing area.

She had found, over the course of her intensive research, numerous cases where one person could inadvertently open such a changing room's door with the intent on offering an opinion or more garments for consideration, and instead be treated to a full on view of the other person, often unclothed, caught in the act of changing outfits.

Reactions to such events were varied. There were many possibility outcomes, many of which involved physical contact between the two, often depicted as comical.

After all, she could not be faulted if the locking mechanism on the door was substandard.

Just as she was about to 'hand' Shinji a new jacket, a surprised voice sounded from behind her.

"Rei? I thought that was you! What are you doing here?"

Momentarily frozen in shock, Rei was carried forth by her momentum, bumping into the flimsy door, which predictably gave way, revealing a **very** shocked Shinji Ikari, clad only in a pair of boxers, changing into a pair of pants.

He yelped as Hikari shrieked, and Rei made no sound as she crashed head first into the startled boy's midsection, sending them both to the ground in a mess of limbs and clothes.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka smiled to herself as she ran a hand over the smooth gray skin of Unit-02's leg. She was inside the LCL filled tank with several other technicians, and Dr. Akagi. Unlike the others, however, she had forgone the use of the scuba equipment, perfectly fine with breathing the LCL. The feeling of the liquid filling up one's lungs was definitely an acquired taste, so to speak, and most of the repair personnel made regular use of diving gear when working in the LCL.

Unit-02's leg was completely regenerated, the limb naked from just above the knee down to the massive foot. They were running the final checks on it today, before starting the process to attach the armor and cybernetic mechanisms, and Dr. Akagi had invited Asuka along to see the new limb.

The girl hadn't needed to be asked twice, jumping up from her chair in excitement, and being quite used to the sensation of having her lungs filled, had forgone the offered kit and had dived right into the tank, swimming effortlessly down through the goo.

Back in Berlin, she had enjoyed a relatively free reign where the Evangelion was concerned, the technicians and research personnel unprepared for the ferocity with which the little girl threw herself into the Evangelion Project. By the time that anyone might think to raise warning flags, they were all accustomed to having her around at all stages of development and utilization.

That free reign had ended somewhat with her arrival in Tokyo-3, the members NERV Central unprepared for a pilot with a personality and an active interest in the other aspects of working with the Evangelions. It had taken her some time to earn the approval of the head of Project E and her immediate crew, but she had impressed them with her ability to learn, to understand, and to adapt the concepts and information that was given to her.

Her drive to be the best of the best was not universally appreciated, however. Just as some people found her to be a breath of fresh air, or an endearing young girl, others were just as likely to find her to be brash and irritating. They dismissed the fact that she had graduated with honors from college, the fact that she more often than not knew what she was talking about, raising points that she was still just a kid, that she didn't act like a good, obedient kid should, and that her personality was all wrong.

Some of this could be put down to culture shock, but NERV was a global company, and employed people from all over the world. True, the individual sites had higher levels of employees recruited from their home country, but the higher level research, technical and command divisions had a respectable swath of different cultural backgrounds. This was even more pronounced at NERV Central, as Commander Ikari had a habit of drawing the best of the best, the cream de la cream, to staff his headquarters.

Maya smiled at the girl as she surfaced, waiting with towels for both the pilot and for their Sempai. Maya herself couldn't stand the feeling of having the fluid in her lungs, but luckily for her, she rarely needed to enter the tank, even with the optional dive gear.

"So how is the leg, Asuka?" she asked, handing the towel to the girl, who was busy expelling the majority of the fluid from her lungs.

Wrapping the towel around her hair, Asuka grinned brightly at the tech. "It's perfect! The armoring process shouldn't take very long, so we should be good to go in a few days. I think we'll be ready for free movement trials by the end of next week."

Ritsuko nodded her head as she climbed up onto the catwalk, doffing the breathing apparatus and accepting the offered towel. "That's a good assessment. What else do you suppose this means?"

"We're going to run more harmonics tests than usual? And then hold the regular activation tests."

Ritsuko smiled again as she pulled her lab-coat on over the swimsuit she wore. "That's right. I suppose that we can kick off the tests tomorrow afternoon. Both Units 01 and 00 are close enough to completion to where we can hold their activation tests without issue. No sense in still putting them off anymore."

Maya noticed the younger girl biting her lip, and the brief flash of what had to be nervous surprise flicking across her face. It was certainly out of place on the normally confident features, but it passed so quickly that she was almost unsure that she had seen it at all.

As the trio left the cage, Maya hung back to walk with Asuka, reaching out to touch her lightly on the shoulder, noting that the girl slightly shied away from the physical contact.

"What's wrong Asuka?"

Annoyance colored the redhead's features momentarily. "Oh," she said, her tone light and care-free, "nothing's wrong."

Maya however wasn't buying it; she knew what she had seen. "What's happening on Friday? You got something else planned?" While it was possible, it wasn't very likely, as the girl seemed to spend most of her free time working with the Evangelion or the MAGI. If she wasn't down there, she was chasing after the Special Inspector that had accompanied her from Berlin. From what little she knew of the man, it was very improbable that the pair had anything planned for tomorrow afternoon.

"Oh, I don't. But the First and Third do."

This was news to Maya. She knew, as did the vast majority of the people who worked directly with the pilots, that the pair were sweet on each other, but she knew that both were very shy and usually needed third party intervention before they did anything. She doubted that Dr. Akagi knew anything about this.

"They do? Maybe we should see if we can postpone the tests another day then. It can't hurt anything, can it?"

As much as it irritated the redhead, Asuka had to grudgingly agree with Maya's assessment. As frustrating as dealing with the other pilots were, she wasn't vindictive enough to want to actively interfere with their plans. That being said, she wasn't very interested in actively trying to help them either.

"Not in the large scheme of things, no. But we shouldn't let personal life interfere with our duty, either."

"But it's so rare for those two to do anything. I think we can talk to Sempai into pushing the tests off." Maya said thoughtfully, wondering just what it was the pair had planned.

"I guess..."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei and Shinji sat quietly as Hikari spoke in urgent, hushed but severe tones into her phone. Neither pilot was able to meet the other's eyes, and both were slightly blushing, a mild red on Shinji, and a faint rosey tinge on Rei. As for their friend, she had recovered from the shock a short time ago, the redness on her features was from outrage and not embarrassment.

"I don't care that you're in the middle of a basketball game, Toji. They were modeling clothing for each other! Fancy clothing! Neither of them know what they're doing, and they shouldn't be doing that for each other anyway!"

Toji, being both a man and generally uninterested in the whole subject, didn't understand the supposed importance of the situation, or the supposed faux pas.

"Tell me again why this is important? I can't just leave the game, Hikari. Can't you call Kensuke or something?"

"Because it is! They're not supposed to see what the other is wearing before a date like this! And do you really think that Ken will be of any help?"

"OK, OK. How about one of the Section 2 guys? I bet one of them can help Shinji. Look, I gotta go, I'll talk later, OK? Bye!"

Hikari growled angrily as the boy hung up, and slammed her phone back into her purse. She pointed at the pair of pilots.

"Don't move."

Hands balled into fists, she marched over to where a pair of the suited men slouched against the wall, keeping an eye on the pilots. The duo straightened up when they realized that she was headed for him. Hikari stared into expressionless black shades for a second, and decided to cut to the chase.

"I don't suppose that one of you can help Shinji get a nice suit for his date, do you?"

The men stared at her, trying not to laugh.

"Not our job, miss. Besides, do you think we're hired for our fashion sense?"

She only glared daggers at him in response, before spinning around and marching back to the bench where her friends sat. She was going to have to have **words** with people, and as soon as she found out who exactly that was, well, they were going to get an earful. Her eyes narrowed as she thought of Toji. He was going to get more than just words. Oh yes.

_I guess if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Ugh... this is a disaster! How am I going to fix this?_

Hikari pointed at Shinji.

"You are going to stay here until I get back. You," she said, nodding at Rei, "are going to come with me."

Shinji watched as the girls left him sitting on the bench. He was still watching the entrance to the store they had gone into when the bench shifted slightly as someone sat down. Turning his head, he saw the smiling form of Inspector Kaji as the man leaned back, looking to be the very picture of relaxation.

"Fancy meeting you here Shinji. You do much mall shopping?"

"Ah... not really, Mister Kaji."

"Oh, it's just Kaji, Shinji. We're friends, aren't we? No need to be so formal."

Shinji didn't respond to this except by turning to watch the store again. He didn't really know much about the older man, except that Asuka thought highly of him, and was constantly making comparisons of people to the man, and that while Misato had known him before, she definitely did not share the redhead's glowing opinion of the unshaven man.

He seemed friendly enough, but as Shinji well knew, that was no guarantee that the man actually was interested in him.

"So what do you think of her, Shinji?"

"Who?"

"Rei, of course! Such a pleasant young lady, don't you think?"

"I... I guess so." As much as Asuka liked the man, Shinji reasoned that there was a reason why Miss Misato didn't. He wasn't much in the habit of discussing his personnel life with people he didn't really know anyways, regardless of how friendly they were. It was only just recently that he felt no real discomfort other than embarrassment when talking about things with Toji or Kensuke, and to a lesser degree, Hikari.

"I bet she's real popular at your school."

"Is that what Asuka says?" Shinji wasn't sure what the man was getting at, but figured that he'd ask. He knew that the girls didn't get along, and that the redhead had no reason to lie about Rei's popularity, but he saw no other way for Kaji to have any idea about Rei's popularity. Asuka was always going on about how much better the conversations she had with the man were, compared to their own lunchtime meetings.

Kaji was a little taken aback by this question. It had been a few days since he had last talked to the girl, and when they had, she never mentioned the other pilots unless he asked about them, and even then it was rarely positively. In truth, he had expected another of the boy's half-hearted mumbled responses. He was stuck for a moment on how to deal with this unexpected turn, not wanting to tell a lie that was obviously false, but not wanting to make it seem like he was making fun of the girl. While he was snooping around to see just how much they were involved with each other, he wasn't looking to pick a fight.

"Oh, not so much. But I'm sure that she's beating the boys off with a stick though, right?"

_Why does he keep asking about Rei? I know that he can't actually be involved with Asuka like she says, but could he be interested in Rei like that? This is really weird. But if he's not interested in her like that, what's the point of saying those things? Is he trying to see if I like her? But why?_

"Not really." When the boy finally spoke again, his response was somewhat non-committal.

If anything, this seemed to please the spy more. "Oh? I don't see why not. I'm sure there must be a lot of guys interested in her."

"I guess."

Had Kaji been a spy of lesser caliber, he would have been pulling out his hair in frustration. It was hard to elicit information from someone if they were not very talkative person by nature, and Shinji Ikari had never been accused of being a very talkative boy. Kaji was nothing but optimistic, however, and would have continued on, had he not been interrupted.

"Shinji, come with me." Hikari said imperiously, her hands on her hips as she studied the boy intently, ignoring the unshaven man sitting next to him.

Kaji raised an eyebrow as Shinji stood and moved to follow the girl, who spun around and had headed off towards another shop.

_Now why did she come back out here so soon? I would have thought getting Rei situated would have taken more time than that..._

Truthfully, his assessment was correct. As soon as the spy had sat down next to Shinji, the Section 2 man watching him from the wall had rolled his eyes and sent one of the others to go suggest to Hikari that she get started on the boy. While there hadn't been any official orders concerning keeping the man from any of the pilots, the agents assigned to the First and Third children had been given a 'suggestion' to the effect that the unshaven inspector had no real business interacting with their charges. After watching the careful and considered way the spy had approached both children when they were 'alone', the senior agent of Mobile 10 decided that Shinji needed to be removed, in a diplomatic and non-threatening fashion, from the situation. Hikari had frowned at the black suited messenger, not understanding what he was going on about, but had loaded Rei down with a few choice dresses and went to get Shinji started on picking out clothing.

For his part, he stared at the plethora of items that his friend quickly piled into his arms, muttering all the while under her breath, selecting some and leaving others in accordance with some unknown standard. While he could spot a few obvious style changes between some of the pants, shirts and jackets, he was at a loss to explain why other items that seemed to be exactly the same were piled up onto the stack.

When one of the attendants came over to see what was going on, Hikari conscripted the amused woman into the cause, spitting out a long laundry list of instructions, before telling Shinji in no uncertain terms to co-operate with the staff, and darted out of the store back over to where she had left Rei.

The sales attendant called some of her co-workers over, and they shepherded the terrified and bewildered boy into the changing area.

When Rei stepped out of her stall, in the first of Hikari's choices, she found not only the class representative, but four other women, three of whom she had seen working in the store earlier, and the last wearing a clear plastic apron over her own clothes. This woman made a tsking sound as she studied the untidy mop of blue hair, just as the others scrutinized the dress.

"Who does your hair, girl?"

Rei blinked, unsure of what the woman meant. Fortunately enough, Hikari was able to translate for them.

"Who cuts your hair for you, Rei?"

"I cut it myself." Rei studied the shocked expressions on the gathering's faces with idle interest. "Is this inappropriate?"

Hikari slapped a hand over her face, sighing.

_I should have known. Didn't she tell me that she used bar soap as shampoo? She hadn't even heard of conditioner until I mentioned her split ends. Did Shinji's father raise her like this on purpose, or was it an accident? Maybe Shinji's better off for having been shipped away like he was..._

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji crept into the apartment, taking care not to make any noise as he opened and closed the door. Silently sliding his shoes off, he tip-toed through the home he shared with his commanding officer, clutching his bags like a religious talisman to ward off evil.

It was **late**, much later than he had ever been out on his own business, and it was past the normal time that Miss Misato usually stumbled off to bed. The lights were all off, and all was quiet. He breathed a soft sigh of relief as he passed the kitchen, glad that he hadn't disturbed Pen-Pen, who was much more easily roused from sleep than his owner.

That feeling vanished as the sound of a beer can being opened filled the air, and the lamp in the living area switched on. Shinji swallowed hard as Misato downed the entire can, coldly glaring at him. Tossing the now empty can to the side, the raven-haired woman opened another can, and set it down on the table in front of her. Her murderous stare evaporated into a look of pure glee.

"Oh, Shinji," she purred, sounding sad, disappointed and thrilled all at the same time, "Shinji, Shinji, Shinji. I'm hurt! How come you didn't tell me about your big date with ~Rei~?" She motioned to the couch, smiling like the cat that had eaten the entire aviary. As Shinji reluctantly sat down she pushed the beer towards him and opened another for herself. "Tell your big sister everything. I want details."

Author's Notes:

Edranis: Asuka, like Shinji and Rei and a slew of others, is just broken differently in this romp through the Evaverse. She's not as acidic right off the bat, but her competency and eagerness to throw her entirety into Project E will come back to bite her hard in the end as the truth comes out about the actual state of things. Telling any more at this point would spoilers, so I'll just have to hope you stick it out. :) As far as Hikari/Toji, I've just sped up their getting together, which was primarily accomplished by their actions (and the photographic proof of said actions) from Misato's first party.

Moonish Man: The timeline has been played around with, yes. It will be important later on that Asuka's at the legal age of majority while Rei and Shinji are not yet.

If any of you have questions, ask! Ask a question, get a response! I promise. :)


	22. Chapter 22

Misato looked up from her desk as the door opened, glad for the distraction. There always seemed to be something that required her attention, some issue that needed the Operations Director to sign off on. Paperwork, the bane of military commanders the world over, continued to rear it's ugly head long after the enemy was dealt with. Not for the first time she thought about seeing if she could get her own minions to deal with this, much like Ritsuko had Maya and now Asuka.

Ritsuko stormed into her friend's office, her features twisted into a scowl. As the door slid shut behind the blond scientist, Misato saw a worried Maya and a bored Asuka pull up short, both electing to remain in the hallway, and away from the irritated division head.

"What's wrong now, Rits?" Misato asked, dreading the response, sure that it would mean more paperwork for her. She leaned back in her chair, tucking her hands behind her head. "Is something up with the Evangelions?"

"No," Ritsuko snapped, as she sank into the low couch that ran parallel to the desk, "It's the pilots. Rei and Shinji, to be exact."

"What's wrong with Shinji?" Misato asked, immediately concerned. Her mind raced through several different possibilities, her eyes growing frantic as her imagination ran wild through the absurd and horrific. "Is Section 2 taking action?" Misato pulled open the desk drawer and pulled her service pistol out, ejecting the magazine to check that it was loaded before standing up.

That question neatly derailed Ritsuko, her vitriol vanished, and now who could only stare agog at the Operations Director, who was throwing on her jacket. Sighing, she buried her face in her hands. "Oh, sit down you idiot. They're not in any danger, except from stupidity and from me."

"Huh?"

"Have you seen the newest calender?"

"Noo," Misato replied in a cautious tone, "but I did see the email that had it attached. It said something about advancing the testing timeline. I was going to look at it after I got done with this." She waved at the stack of papers on her desk. "But what does that have to do with Shinji?"

"Not just Shinji," Ritsuko corrected, her voice grim. "Shinji and Rei."

Misato rolled her eyes as she leaned back in her chair. "OK, what about Shinji and Rei?"

"They want to have dinner during the first harmonics tests! And those two," she said while pointing at the closed door, "want me to push off the test until the day after!"

"Wait, what?"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

As the car came to a stop, Gendo Ikari steeled himself for what he knew would be coming next. He could already see Jean-Paul Durand, the energetic and overly friendly head of NERV-France. While the man wasn't even actually French by birth, but rather by blood paid for his time as a member of the Foreign Legion, he had adopted more than just the French name and language.

Despite the fact that the Frenchman on the SEELE Council was one of the more important members, France only boasted one NERV installation, which revolved around the housing and testing of Evangelion Unit 3, the French twin to the German Unit 2. No independent research or even parts construction was carried out here. It was a glorified secondary testing facility, and nothing more.

"Ahh, Gendo! Gendo, Gendo! How good it is to see you again! It has been too long." Jean-Paul cried out as he held his arms open to wrap the smaller man in a bear hug.

Jean-Paul Durand was huge, towering over everyone's head, standing at 7'2. He had hailed from Iceland originally, but after Second Impact had swept clean his island home, he had responded to the call to arms that France had sent out, drawing dislocated and disaffected men to serve her in the wars that soon followed. He had served faithfully for five years, until a time when a mysterious set of letters had arrived at his posting, freeing him of his obligation and inducting him into the fledgling operation that would eventually become GEHIRN and then, ultimately, NERV.

Fridrik Arison, the man that he had been, had worked on a cargo ship that traveled the world. Fridrik Arison had meet, and fought, a man by the name of Gendo Rokobungi in a dock side bar, and the two had become friends when they both woke up in the drunk tank the next morning.

Jean-Paul Durand had meet a man by the name of Gendo Ikari at a GEHIRN conference in Berlin. They had never seen or heard of the other prior to that. They were not friends, as Gendo Ikari did not have any friends, but they were... friendly.

"Jean-Paul." Gendo replied, his voice muffled, "If you do not let me go I am going to punch you in the kidney."

"We have much to talk about Gendo. Later," Jean-Paul muttered, before releasing his friend and waving towards the main doors to the office complex. "Come! We can have lunch!"

Gendo sighed again as he followed the red haired man into the offices, both men ignoring the beeping alarm of the metal detector as they passed under it. Jean-Paul made enough small talk for the both of them as they made their way deeper and deeper into the building, eventually arriving at the spacious office NERV-France provided for its Director. As the door closed behind them, an electronic hum filled the air and hair on Gendo's neck stood up.

"We can talk freely here. I'm guessing that you came about the delays with Unit-3?"

"That- and other reasons. Your men are severely behind schedule, Jean-Paul."

The director only shrugged as he sank onto the leather couch, waving a hand dismissively. "These men, they are not like the Germans or you Japanese. They outsource their fighting to foreigners for a reason. They play at being engineers and technicians here, but you know that all that they really do is follow orders. Orders from Germany, and from Japan, and from America. And some of these orders, well, they seem to skip coming through my office and show up directly at certain peoples' doors, yes?"

"And these orders," Gendo replied as he helped himself to some of the food that was arrayed on the low table, "say to slow down the tests, to make mistakes, to delay."

Jan-Paul nodded. "And there you have it. Someone is sabotaging the war effort. Someone high up on the food chain."

As much as he might have wanted to, Gendo could not tell his old friend about the truth behind the source of these orders, and the true nature of the attack that they were meant to be. The man believed that they were in a fight against things beyond the scope of man's understanding, but Gendo did not feel that the man was ready to hear the truth behind that fight. The man knew that Gendo had pulled strings to get him this job; Jean-Paul felt that it was because Gendo wanted someone he knew to keep an eye on things.

If someone had asked Gendo, long ago, what he thought of the wheels within wheels and plans intertwined with plans crowd, he would have laughed and told them that they were crazy. If they had told him that he would go on to steal someone else's careful clockwork assembly of lies, plans and misdirections, and then proceed to layer in his own conglomeration of plans, lies and misdirections, he would have told them to flat out get lost.

_Time, _Gendo mused to himself, _has a funny way of upsetting one's perceptions._

Jean-Paul continued on with his rant about people and politics, but Gendo was no longer listening. He hadn't really thought that his friend was the one behind the slow downs in the testing and preparation of the Evangelion, but it was the sort of thing that he was expected to look into personally. No doubt Jean-Paul had already scheduled walk-throughs of the facilities for the upcoming week, and it would be concluded that the delays, while unfortunate, were not anyone's fault and would just have to be accepted. It would be pointed out that life did not always run according to schedule.

Jean-Paul hated the world of politics that he had been dragged into, as he felt that the alien threat that they faced superseded other concerns. They were humans first, after all. What did it matter that the effort was being led in Japan? If they failed there, it did not matter that it was on the other side of the world. While the Earth might remain after Third Impact, mankind surely would not.

Gendo listened with half an ear to what his friend was going on about, trying to decided how best to deal with this, when something Jean-Paul said sent shivers down his spine.

"Hmm?" he asked, looking up from his sandwich to his friend.

"Oh, I said that it doesn't even matter that it's your son who's been leading the charge, because Europe's got it's own representative with the German girl. He needs the latest model Evangelion, just like her."

"Indeed." came Gendo's response, even as he resumed eating, his heart suddenly growing heavy as a new layer of frost formed on the ball of ice that sat deep within his stomach.

Jean-Paul knew. He should not know that it was his son who was piloting. That information was highly classified, and was beyond Jean-Paul's level. If he knew that, then someone had told him.

SEELE had probably recruited his friend. Either they had known before hand that he and Jean-Paul knew each other, or it was a spot of bad luck; but the result was the same. If Jean-Paul was on board with the plan to become as a God, he would have given up their history as a matter of fact.

Of course, he might not be on board with that. They might have appealed to him with other temptations; SEELE was capable of promising much when they had no plans to actually come through and make good on their deals.

Then again, Gendo thought as he carefully watched the man eat, Jean-Paul might have warmed up to the Great Game enough to employ spies of his own, and had discovered the identities of the pilots with his own resources. SEELE was far from all-knowing, after all, and not everyone paid such attention to detail as he. It was not unreasonable for Jean-Paul to slip up and make mention of such a thing. Gendo dealt with people everyday who knew the identities of the pilots. Would he notice it if someone else knew their names?

The problem was that he did notice, and now he had to consider his old friend to be his enemy, at least until such a time that his agents and double agents could vet the man. Gendo silently cursed as he finished his meal. There always seemed to be something. Nothing ever ran as smoothly as it should. He longed to be back in Tokyo-3. He always developed a most irritating itch between his shoulder blades when traveling outside his city. While he doubted that his usefulness to SEELE was at an end, the abrasive scientist knew that there were dissenting voices on the council, and that some would not hesitate to see him dead if they thought they could arrange it without upsetting their scenario.

He would have to be doubly on his guard while here in France, where his itinerary was known. Once he was safely on his way to Russia, he could relax a little.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji stared at Misato, unsure of what to do or say. He was a deer caught in the headlights, and indecision ruled his body. Misato smiled warmly, and pointed at the can of beer that sat in front of him.

"C-can I put something in the refrigerator f-first?" Shinji carefully put his bags on the floor, and pulled a small box, not unlike plastic containers that held sandwiches in one of the NERV vending machines. Inside this small parcel was no sandwich, however, but a delicate looking assembly of ribbon, lace and flowers. "I-t's a c-corsage."

Shinji reddened as Misato's grin grew wider. Her eyes sparkled as they fixated themselves on the small box and it's contents.

"Ohhh," she purred, "A **corsage**. Very romantic. Very daring." She made a shooing gesture with the hand that held her beer. "Go on. Put it in the fridge."

As Shinji moved to comply, she threw her empty hand into her mouth and bit down on her knuckle, trying not to sequel in giddyness. She had been expecting something good when she finally got to put her young ward to question, but this was something else! She couldn't wait to begin the inquisition in earnest. Slouching down a little in her comfortable chair, she waited for him to return.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato checked her phone for text messages and voice mail for the seventh time that hour. Ritsuko rolled her eyes at her friend, while both Asuka and Maya sat by idly, Asuka looking bored out of her skull and Maya appeared somewhat nervous.

Asuka spoke up, not moving her gaze from the ceiling of Misato's office. "He hasn't sent you any messages, Misato. I don't know what he does when he's not at school or here, but he's probably doing it right now."

Misato snorted as she tossed her phone onto her desk. "What about Rei then? I would have expected her to at least come by to see if there was a possible scheduling conflict."

"I doubt that wondergirl has thought that far ahead."

Ritsuko bit back a sudden smile. _Oh, how you wrong that girl, my little protege. As strange as she is, and as bizarre her thoughts, Rei does indeed plan ahead. What it is that she's thinking about as she plans is something else though._

As amusing as it was to consider the thought processes of the clone, Ritsuko was not about to show anything but irritated contempt towards the idea of the two pilots being allowed to have dinner during her scheduled tests. She knew that this was unfair and perhaps a little selfish, but she was also growing tired of the little charade of the budding romance between the two.

The quartet of women looked up as the door to Misato's office opened. Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki stood in the doorway, his mouth set in a grim line. He nodded towards the Operations Director and the Science Director in greeting.

"I've spoken to the Commander. He will allow it. Push the tests back to the day after, Doctor."

Not waiting for a response to his portentous news, he turned and left.

Maya grinned and bounced to her feet, eager to go and get started on the myriad tasks that accompanied rescheduling the harmonics tests. "I'll go get started then."

She nodded to the others and scurried out the door.

Asuka shook her head, clearly still of two minds about the whole thing. "I'm going home. I'll see you tomorrow afternoon, Sempai. Misato." she said, nodding to her superiors.

Ritsuko nodded back at her and sighed again. Misato sighed as well, but where the blond doctor's was one of long suffering irritation, the Operations Director's sigh was one that was rarely seen outside sappy romance movies where women wearing easily ripped bodices swooned over men with tendencies to lose track of their shirts.

"Why can't things go as they are supposed to? Is it too much that I ask for things to run smoothly while the Commander is away?"

Misato eyed her friend critically. "You know, you surprise me. I'd think that you'd be all for this!"

Ritsuko's jaw dropped. "What makes you say that? Why on earth would I want the two of them together?"

Misato shot a flat look at the protesting scientist. "Well, for starters, it's cute. Two, they both could use it. Three, it's like it's right out of those trashy romance novels you used to read back in college!"

Chagrined, Ritsuko's thoughts went not back to the apartment that she had shared with Misato, but to her current one, the one that sat far overhead, and to the lone bookcase that was not home to scientific and technical texts, but to a slew of those selfsame trashy romance novels.

"Anyways," Misato continued, "I still don't see what you've got against them. I don't see them doing anything that they're not supposed too."

"It wouldn't matter much anyways. Well, from a medical standpoint I mean."

"Why? What're you talking about?"

"You didn't read the report, did you?"

"What report? What are you talking about?"

"Misato, I write those things for a reason. The medical reports! I detail any pharmaceutical changes in the monthly reports."

"Pharmaceutical?" A horrified expression dawned on Misato's features. "Rits! You didn't!"

"I did. The pair of them are on sterility drugs. It's mixed in with their antidepressants."

"What about Asuka?"

Ritsuko shrugged. "What about her? She's not exhibiting reckless behavior. The moment I'm worried about her getting knocked up is when I start her on the drugs. I'm not just doping the pilots for the fun of it, Misato. If I was, both Rei and Shinji would be on so many uppers that you'd be annoyed with how cheerful they'd be. But Asuka's different. She's older for one thing, meaning that we'd need her consent, and for another, she doesn't exhibit any behavior indicative of needing the antidepressant courses that the others are on. She's rock solid."

"That is true," Misato grudgingly agreed, "but, I know that Shinji still wakes up with, er, well, you know."

"I know what?"

Misato glared at her friend, who was clearly trying not to laugh. "You know what I'm talking about."

"Are you OK, Misato? You seem to be flustered by something. Is mommy's little boy not so little?"

If looks could kill, Misato would have been able to make a fortune on the arms market with the one she was throwing at her friend. Ritsuko, now openly laughing, took pity and relented.

"The drugs don't affect sexual arousal or the associated physical responses thereof. It just makes them sterile for the duration that they take their medicine. But how do you know what he wakes up with? Have you been snooping?"

Misato snorted. "I can't help it that he walks to the bathroom in the morning in just shorts. He's a slow waker. He's in a bit of a daze in the mornings."

"Sounds like you're rubbing off on him then."

"Whatever." Misato sighed as she shifted her gaze from the scientist to the ceiling. "If they're both on anti-baby drugs, then I guess we don't need to give them the talk."

"You can still discuss the birds and the bees with Shinji if you want. You can even talk it over with Rei, for that matter, but I'll be doing nothing of the sort."

"Aww, c'mon, Rits! If you don't give the talk to Rei, who will? The Commander?"

Both women locked eyes with each other, and promptly exploded into gales of laughter. Both had pictured the Commander, sitting at his desk, hands folded in front of his face, detailing in that bored tone of voice the facts of life to his blue haired ward.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato lay on her back in bed, staring up at the darkened ceiling. Her talk with Shinji had been amusing and enlightening, to say the least.

Asuka hadn't mentioned that she had baited Rei into asking Shinji out to dinner. She knew that Asuka could be a little... caustic, but it sounded to her like the two girls were used to taking verbal potshots at each other. While not something that was too alarming, it would need to be kept in mind. She didn't want her pilot corps to destroy itself from within.

That being said, the rest of Shinji's tale, when she had finally been able to drag it entirely out of him, had been worth the long wait through the rest of the afternoon and evening. She would have to check with the Section 2 men to see what all they were doing to take care of the reservation. Rosewater's was not a restaurant one could easily secure a table at on short notice, but Misato was certain that the intimidating men in black suits and shades could accomplish it. The Commander himself had given the green light, if the Sub-Commander was to be believed, and despite the fact that she could hardly believe it, she saw no reason not to. What would the old man gain from lying about such a thing?

She would also need to send a note to Hikari. The girl had taken the pair well in hand, and perhaps she could keep an eye on them at school for her. She could also tell her more about the pilot's interactions with each other as well as with the other children of the school.

She rolled over onto her side, not being used to still being awake this late at night when at home. She had only had three beers, two of her own and the one she had opened for Shinji. He hadn't wanted it though, and while it had been like pulling teeth to get him to spill the juicy details of his afternoon, it seemed like he wanted nothing more than to rush through it and escape to the safety and solitude of his room.

And what a day it had been! Certainly, a day unlike any other for the poor boy. What terrible tribulation it must have been, being the sole focus of three bored saleswomen for several hours. Hikari had been there sporadically, adding her own critical eye to the proceedings, and whispering things that the boy hadn't been able to catch into the ears of the store staff, who had in varying turns grinned, laughed and one point giggled like a pack of harpies.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji sat in the changing booth, listening to the impatient women outside. He was supposed to be getting into the latest assortment of clothes that they had put together, which seemed no different from the last three. He was procrastinating, however, not looking forwards to running the gauntlet that followed with each donning of the prospective suit.

Measurements would be taken, hands run across nearly every length of body that he had, they would check the 'hang' of the lower pant-leg of his artificial leg. Shoes would be inspected for fit, and a dozen other little things would happen that he had no idea what they were for.

He hadn't been the center of this much attention since he had first come to NERV.

The women had closed up the shop, going so far as to enlisting the aid of one of the Section 2 men, the dour looking man standing guard at the store entrance, allowing only other Section 2 personnel and Hikari into the store. To be honest, it had been a slow day for them, and when the young girl had filled the bevy of young women in on what was going on, well, they were too happy to help.

They had seen the NERV ID badge that also served as a check card. The boy also had that security man following after him. They reasoned that if it was a con, it was a well put together one.

This latest batch was a suit of all black cotton, from some European label. Shinji pulled the shirt on, noting that it was another one of the weird ones that needed little jewelry bits to keep the cuffs together.

The tie was of flat black silk, with no design embroidered into it, unlike several other monochromatic ties before it. While he had of course heard the phrase "Black Tie" before, the women had long since started favoring darker colors in the clothes they made him wear, and the last five sets had all been all black, which seemed to Shinji to be a little overkill.

He understood that his father wanted him to adhere to the dress code so not to cause trouble with the restaurant, and that the majority of the patrons of the western-styled restaurant had been wearing formal western apparel instead of traditional Japanese formal styles, but wouldn't just a white dress shirt and tie be okay? Was all of this really necessary?

One of the women tapped on the door. "Everything okay in there? You need any help?"

"No!" Shinji cringed as he replied. He threw on the jacket and exited the small booth, as ready as he would ever be to get the next round of prodding and poking done with and over.

"Hmmm..."

One of the trio grinned as she slowly circled him like a vulture over an explorer dying of thirst. "I think that we have a winner, girls."

"He does look good. We'll have to do something about that hair, though."

Reflexively, Shinji raised a hand towards his hair, but dropped it back down to his side as the women's looks grew even more amused. _What's wrong with my hair?_

The automated chime sounded as Hikari walked in, making a beeline for them, only to stop and nod, a smile on her face for the first time since she had found the pair of pilots shopping for clothes.

"That's perfect!"

"Yes, it does seem to suit him, doesn't it? This shirt's one with french cuffs. I don't think that he can pull off a watch or a ring, and since it's primarily going to be a dinner date going for a scarf or a hat as an accessory won't work. The cuff links, in silver, I think, will stand out more and complement the outfit."

"Maybe one with a splash of color? Maybe to match his date's dress?" Another of the trio spoke up from where she leaned against a display table. "Black and silver is a classic, yeah, but it's also cliché and overdone."

Hikari shook her head, a look of uncertainty on her face. "Rei's dress is also black. She's so pale, the lighter colored dresses made her look more washed out than usual, but they couldn't get a blue dress to match her hair, and she flat out refuses to wear red. Something about it being a wrong color."

"What's wrong with the girl's hair?"

Shinji frowned at the question. _There's nothing wrong with Rei's hair! _But before he could try to voice his complaint, Hikari sighed as she started to circle the boy, inspecting him from all angles like a vulture circling a corpse in the desert.

"Well, it's not evenly cut at all, and she's still got a some split ends, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was before."

"No," the confused woman responded, "how come they couldn't match a blue dress to her hair?"

"Oh! Rei's got blue hair. It's kinda a pastel blue? They didn't have anything that looked right with her hair."

"Blue hair? Is Rosewater's going to let someone with hair dyed blue inside?"

"It's not dyed." Shinji startled everyone, including himself, with his irritated and curt response.

"It's a medical thing. I don't understand all of the specifics, but Rei's an albino with blue hair." Hikari chuckled. "I've just been around her for so long that I don't even notice it anymore. Did Rei explain it all to you, Shinji?"

Shinji blushed and clamped his mouth shut, refusing to comment further on just how it was that he knew that Rei's hair coloration was natural.

As puzzled as she was by this, Hikari did not have the time to deal with it. "Maybe you have cuff links that will match her hair! She's getting a haircut next door, you can come and check her out."

The floor manager, the one who had closed the shop, nodded. "Good idea. We've got a wide variety of interchangeable pieces for a few styles of cuff links. We can also go look at her dress."

Hikari flashed a smile at Shinji. "We'll be right back! Don't go anywhere!"

The woman who had been leaning against the display table laden with ties and pocket squares stood up and winked at him. "Don't change out that just yet. We'll check you for some measurements before we send you to the barber."

"Barber?" Hikari inquired as she shot him a fleeting glance as the quartet of women left. "I guess he could use a trim. I wouldn't have thought about sending him either."

Shinji slumped down onto a stool as the door shut behind them. The Section 2 man shook his head.

"Do you want something to drink? I've got coffee coming over." Without waiting for a response either way from the boy, the man ducked his head slightly and spoke into his collar. "Bring some coffee for Ten as well."

"Ten?" Shinji asked. It was obvious that it was a code name for him, but he didn't understand why it was a simple number rather than an actual code name.

"Ten. You're subject ten. Your security detail is called ten group." The man shrugged as he kept watch through the glass door at the sea of people, each going about their day. He could pick out five other members of 10 Mobile, as well as two men and a woman that he knew by face who were in the plainclothes 6 Group.

"Do you have guards for everyone?"

The man shook his head. "Just the important people."

Shinji had nothing to say to that, as he understood that he was indeed an important person, but he he felt that his importance to the future of the human race, while monumental in that he was one of three people capable of even hoping to go toe to toe with the Angels, still wasn't anything to get all excited about.

This was not due to a generous sense of humility, or even an understanding of just how unimportant the human race was in the course of just the Earth's history, let alone that of the solar system. It was because he had very little self esteem, and almost no sense of self worth. As he understood things, while he had been lucky so far in the war, he was largely untrained and his abilities and skills lacking when compared to Asuka and Rei, even though he had outshone the latter in terms of synchronization, and had better marksmanship skills than either.

Settling down onto a handy stool, Shinji ran a hand through his hair. While it was true that it had been a while since he had trimmed it, it wasn't very long, which was nice as it meant that he didn't have to spend too much time cleaning the LCL out of it after tests or fights. Every once in a while, when sitting in the shower he would think about shaving all of it off, but never went through with the idea. It would make him stand out, and he had never been fond of drawing other people's attention to himself.

Hell, as far as Shinji was concerned, was indeed other people.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka stared at the classroom's ceiling, bored out of her skull and she didn't care if it showed. Likewise, she also didn't care if that showed disrespect to their teacher, who was going on about some of the different college entrance exams of the more prestigious universities in Japan and how that even with the uncertainty of the near future of mankind, it was still important to plan for one's future.

While it might have been important for majority of the class, Asuka didn't care. Even if she didn't already have a degree, she knew what she would be doing for the rest of her life; piloting her Unit-02. All the discussion did was emphasize just why it was such a waste of her time to be sitting here in this class. Hikari let her get away with not paying attention more than she did the others; but only after Asuka had shown her shocked friend her old textbooks and notes.

But even if she let Asuka slack off with paying attention, she kept an eye on Shinji and Rei, whose grades were less than stellar, and refused to goof off with her during class, meaning that she had to find other ways to keep herself amused.

Carefully, as not to be noticed, she snuck a look at the Third Child, his face screwed up in concentration as he looked down at his laptop.

_Probably worrying about his little date tonight. What a putz. _She snorted softly. _Useless, _she thought to herself. She was gradually coming to think more and more that there wasn't more to the meek boy that what was seen on the surface. That being said, she was still at a loss as to his ferocious display during the Angel battle. It was an annoying problem, but she had been unable to get a rise out of him so far, no matter what she said to him, and she was getting bored with the whole thing. She turned her head slightly to look at Rei.

Rei, as usual, was staring out the window. This teacher, like all the others before him, had long ago stopped trying to get the soft spoken girl to pay attention in class. But where Asuka was getting to that point by dint of her previous education, Rei simply seemed to exist outside the normal realm of things. If a person was to point out her near silence, her lack of personality, or the fact that her hair was BLUE, people would just shrug and point out that it was Rei.

People's attention, it seemed, slid off of the albino like water off of a duck. She was so quiet and unobtrusive that people seemed to just forget that she was even there in the room.

This was just fine as far as the redhead was concerned, preferring to not even think about the infuriating First Child whenever possible. She loved being the center of attention, and if the blue haired tart wanted to stay in the shadows, she was welcome to it.

For his part, Shinji Ikari's attention was split between three subjects. Firstly, his upcoming date with Rei later this evening. Miss Misato had told him that nothing was planned for today, and to just go to school and then come home to get ready. She had made a few cryptic remarks over breakfast about 'helping out' with the date, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that.

The second item was actually more like an addendum to the first item, as both Toji and Kensuke were bugging him over the chat program for details about what had happened yesterday afternoon and just why Hikari hadn't said a word at all to Toji so far today, but had only sent murderous looks towards him.

The third and final issue was that of the class discussion and the assignment; basically instructions to go and ponder on where he saw himself in ten years, and what he wanted to do once he was out in the real world.

Now, this was an interesting question. Where exactly did Shinji Ikari see himself in ten years? What did he want to do? Was this even an option for him? Did NERV expect him to stay a pilot for the rest of his life? Was he expected to join the military when he turned sixteen or graduated from high school?

He knew (as he had been told many, many times over) that Asuka held a bachelor's degree. He also knew that she wanted to continue her education and become a doctor, like Dr. Akagi, while continuing to pilot and work with the Evangelions. He also knew that NERV was a UN operation, and while they staffed members of the JSSDF (and other military organizations), there was a lot of gray area as to who they reported to.

Then, there was the issue of his father. Would his dad even let him go on to do something else with his life? Did he have other plans for him?

One of the things mentioned by the teacher was the paradoxical increase in smaller family owned and operated businesses even as globalization spread as countries picked up the pieces after Second Impact. This however didn't really help Shinji too much, as NERV and the Evangelions were his father's business. He was already working for him!

He knew that most of the people he interacted with on a regular basis held masters or doctorates, many of them holding multiple degrees. Even Miss Misato held a bachelor's in something. He had seen the degree hanging up in her office. His father was even a scientist, or at least had been one before taking control of NERV. His mother had been a scientist as well. Was he expected to follow in their footsteps? If so, he was in for a rough time. He scraped by on his science homework, and the subject didn't really appeal to him.

Fortunately, the assignment wasn't something that he needed to have an immediate answer for. It was something for them all to work on over the weekend, supposedly to get them used to thinking about and planning for the future. After all, as their elderly instructor had said, not everyone gets to grow up to be a movie star or pop idol or astronaut. It was time to put away childish dreams and face reality.

_Although,_ Shinji thought to himself, _how many people get to grow up saving the world in a giant robot?_

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Captain Katsuragi's desk was clear of paperwork, both the In and Out trays devoid of any inhabitants. This fact set the Section 2 Agent on edge, for it was well documented that the Operations Director **always** had some paperwork yet to do, excepting on those very rare occasions where she was preparing for something and wanted her plate clean of any other obligations.

This fact, coupled with the message that she had sent to the Section 2 Operations Liaison Officer meant that she was indeed up to something. Of course, it was patently obvious that whatever she was planning had something to do with the pilots' dinner date. But whatever it was that she had in mind remained to be seen. The agent, a towering American who spoke lightly accented Japanese shifted uncomfortably in his seat as Captain Katsuragi silently stared at him from behind her desk, in a copy of the same pose that Commander Ikari was infamous for. Neither one had any direct authority over the other, except in the general authority in combat situations Misato held over anyone she could rope into fighting, and then the Agent's authority to take steps to ensure the safety of the subjects who were classified as mission essential personnel, and to ensure the continued existence of the shroud of secrecy that surrounded NERV.

In fact, personnel from the other NERV Sections were never supposed to interact directly with Section 2, except via the Liaison Officers, unless it was vital to maintain the immediate security of NERV. The summons, and this meeting were both... unorthodox.

It had never been said that Misato Katsuragi was an orthodox woman.

"So... Captain... What can Section 2 do for you?"

Misato dropped her hands from in front of her face to reveal a wide grin as she leaned back in her chair, just barely resisting the urge to kick her feet up onto her desk. She knew that this meeting was enough of a breech of protocol, and she didn't need to add to it by being too informal with the man, whose name she didn't even know. Nobody knew their names. It was rumored that upon joining Section 2, prospective agents had to give up their names.

"Shinji and Rei are going on a date tonight." Misato stated, pausing to watch the man carefully. "He said that your department was taking care of the reservation at Rosewater's." After he nodded in acknowledgment, she continued.

"Now, I can't say that I've ever eaten there, but I understand that it's a fancy place, and that it's got a waiting list as long as my arm. I was surprised that they had been able to get a table there before, but I suppose that your department can... bend the rules for certain people.

So, what I'm getting at is that they've got nice clothes, a reservation at a nice restaurant, and even a corsage. But what about transportation? Are they going to walk to the restaurant? Are they meeting up at Rei's place, or my apartment, or even just at Rosewater's?"

She leaned over her desk, arms crossed atop it's surface and flashing a little cleavage at the man. Misato was no novice in using all of her available assets to get what she wanted.

"The way I look at it, it's being set up as a nice romantic date. Even Hikari, their friend from school, I'm sure you know her, well, even she thinks this way and took steps to make this something special. Isn't it our obligation to help out with this?"

The Section 2 Agent leaned back in his seat, and took off the black sunglasses, revealing a pair of ice blue eyes. A half smile appeared on his face as he folded the glasses and tucked them into a pocket.

"What exactly did you have in mind?"

Misato's grin grew wider.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

As the school bell rang, signaling the end of the day, two cell phones began to ring.

Normally, students were to either silence or turn their phones off. There were three obvious exceptions to this rule, being of course the trio of pilots.

Shinji and Rei both answered their phones, and were both were told to report to the school's gate at once. Rei closed her phone and tucked it back into her bag, and left. Shinji, however, turned to Hikari.

"Um... I've been told to report to the front gate. I can't do my clean up duties today."

Hikari looked up from her own phone, holding up a finger to tell him to wait as she listened to the person on the other end of the line. A smile spread across her features as she murmured into the phone, before closing it with a satisfied snap.

"Oh, that's fine Shinji. Go on, get out of here!" Hikari said, before turning to their friends, her expression hardening. "Suzahara! Aida!" she snapped, her voice as cold as ice and as hard as diamonds, "Both of you are on clean up!"

Shinji, deciding that he really didn't want to know, ducked out of the classroom and made a beeline for the front gate, to find one of the armored cars of the Section 2 men waiting for him, with Rei already sitting inside. As he slid into the car, the gun toting agent closed the door and pounded a fist on the roof, signaling the driver to leave.

As the car speed off from the curb, the driver rolled down his window and stuck a detachable police light to the top and started the siren, warning the rest of the traffic to make way for the speeding convoy of vehicles as they tore along the streets towards the apartment that Shinji shared with Misato.

The agent in the front passenger seat broke the silence without bothering to turn to look at the pilots.

"All of your things are in the trunk, Miss. You'll both be getting ready at Captain Katsuragi's, and we've arranged suitable transportation to Rosewater's for you. Everything's been arranged."

"E-everything?" Shinji wasn't entirely sure what else there was that needed arranging, what with all the things that had been arranged and then re-arranged yesterday.

"Everything."

Shinji, confident that whatever had been overlooked by all of the assorted persons involved in yesterday's mess had indeed been taken care of slouched back into his seat and shot a sideways look at Rei, who was quietly staring out her window at city as they tore through it at high speed.

As his eyes settled on his friend, the car came to a sudden, spinning and screeching halt as they arrived at the apartment building. A black suited man, one of six already waiting for them, opened Rei's door for her as the door was unlocked by the driver. Shinji blinked in the bright flash of blinding sunlight as Rei climbed out of the car, and it was at this moment that he realized than in a few moments, both he and Rei would be getting ready for a fancy dinner date, and in a few hours, both he and Rei would be **on** a fancy dinner date.

As his door was opened, Shinji Ikari began to hyperventilate.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Now, as anyone who is even amateurishly versed in such things could tell a person with no experience in these matters at all, it is very hard for two people to shower and otherwise make use of a bathroom at the same time unless they are on very familiar terms with each other. Thus, it stands to reason that the logical thing to do in a one bathroom apartment is to take turns.

However, Misato was not about to let Rei muck her way through getting ready for such an important event. The Children had been left to their own devices on their first date, and it had ended in, well, Misato wasn't entirely sure how it had ended, but she knew that there hadn't been any nookie, or sloppy make-outs or even a single chaste kiss, and to Misato, she the raven-haired queen of the party, the maiden of make-outs, the the pickled purveyor of drunken groping, that meant an unsuccessful date.

Time had only slightly tempered the young woman who was making up for time lost as a near catatonic mute.

Because Misato was taking a hand in helping Rei out with getting ready, that meant that there would be much time spent in the area in and around the apartment's bathroom. It was doubtful that Shinji would have the time be able to properly prepare himself if he was to wait.

An easy solution to this problem presented itself to the interested parties earlier this day.

Despite servicing the five man shift that made up Shinji's security contingent on the same floor of Misato's apartment, the bathroom was remarkably clean, as was the rest of the apartment. This certainly was not due to a rushed and frenzied cleaning session because they (the men currently on shift) had been told in no uncertain terms by the leader of 10 Group that Shinji was going to get ready in the control station, and if he freaked out because the place was trashed, they would wish that their punishment was only to come from Commander Ikari.

Shinji stepped out of the shower, clad only in a towel because his clothes had been stolen by one of the agents, probably the tall blond who was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed as he waited for the pilot.

"Um... I couldn't find my clothes..." Shinji said, looking around. The apartment was larger than Misato's, and was laid out differently. He could hear some of the other men talking in hushed voices down the hall, in the kitchen, but couldn't make out what was being said.

"They've been taken back to your apartment." The man, completely ignoring the artificial leg that captivated the attention of just about everyone who ever saw it, jerked his head down the hall towards a door. "Follow me, and I'll get you ready."

"I can get dressed by myself." Shinji muttered, just barely loud enough to be heard. I don't see what's so complicated about it."

Ahead of Shinji, the agent smiled to himself. "Of course you can, but there's no room for error. Not today. That's why I was brought in."

Shinji paused as he trailed behind the tall man. "You're not part of my regular detail?"

"No. I normally work in a different Group, but my skills are needed more here tonight. I'm going to do more than help you get dressed you know."

"Skills?" Shinji asked, eminently confused.

"Just because I wasn't hired for my fashion sense doesn't mean that I don't have one. Besides, it's more than just that. I can make anything look good, and I can turn any dame into melted butter."

"Huh?"

The man continued on talking, ignoring the boy's confused expression or comments as he closed the door and pointed to the bed, where Shinji's clothing for the evening was laid out.

"Now, with you we're not expecting miracles, mind, but I think that with a little help you'll be able to turn an ice tray into a drink on the rocks. I don't think that you've got the facial build to be classically good looking, but then again, neither do I, and I'm not exactly a monk, now am I?"

Shinji, only just barely following the conversation, wasn't sure how to answer that question.

"No?"

In another apartment on that floor, Misato looked up as a damp Rei exited the bathroom, wearing a towel hanging about her shoulders and nothing else. Misato froze for a second, suddenly **very** glad that Shinji was getting ready elsewhere.

"Captain-"

"Misato, Rei. It's Misato. Is there something wrong with the shower?"

"No. I am ready to get dressed."

Shaking her head, Misato put down her magazine, making a tsking sound. "No Rei, you are most certainly not ready to get dressed." The woman stood up, and as she did so pulled off her shirt and tossed it on the couch as she walked towards the girl. Reaching up behind her for the clasp to her bra, she nodded to the door behind the girl who was watching her curiously. "Back in the shower, you. I guess I'll have to get my hands dirty on this one."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato grinned at her handiwork. It was very slight, but now there was just the tiniest bit of pinkish coloration to Rei's alabaster cheeks.

The problem with Rei was that with her naturally wan complexion, which would have been the envy of all the ladies back in the Victorian era, made it very easy for even a little color to be far to much. This had played it's part in the dress selection yesterday, and it raised a challenge to Misato on this afternoon.

Misato, however, was up to the challenge. Her skilled eye and practiced hands made timely work of the job of applying makeup to the girl, and then proceeded to show her how to re-apply the makeup during trips to the bathroom to 'freshen up".

That, of course, had prompted a conversation about "freshening up" and socially accepted triggers and time durations for such trips. This, in turn paved the way for Misato to ease into "tips" on how to turn men in general (and Shinji in particular) into putty with a minimum of effort. The flip of the head, a smoldering glance, a brief, almost-accidental touch of their hands, all of these were brought up, and then dissected by Rei. She had, of course, run across mention of them in her studies, but had been unable to find a reliable description on just how to preform and utilize such things.

Then there was the walk. One apparently could not just walk in the slinky black dress that had been chosen as one did in a school uniform or plug suit. One had to move like a liquid, to sashay, to move with a rhythm of the likes that Rei had never seen. Not even Asuka had been observed to move in the manner that Misato demonstrated, although it was clear to Rei that Asuka knew what she was about.

Practice made prefect, and experience lorded over all. To this end, Misato had Rei practice walking around the apartment. While a somewhat surreal experience, Rei focused on the task just as readily as she did piloting Unit-00.

Time, however, was fleeting, and soon the time for Rei and Shinji to depart came round at last. Misato was able to contain her glee as she and Pen-Pen watched Shinji awkwardly fumble his way through putting the corsage on Rei's wrist, and then made them endure the indignity of having a series of photographs taken of them, both by themselves and then together.

Once the pair were out the door and on their way to the armored limo that sat waiting in the parking lot, Misato dropped the digital camera on the ground, and plucked up a startled penguin and began dancing around the room, swinging her captive room-mate/pet as she released the pent up warm and fuzzy feelings in a series of squeals, before dropping Pen-Pen onto the couch and making a mad dash for her room, to throw on clothing suitable for a night on the town, or more specifically, a night at a particular bar just down the street from a certain posh restaurant.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kozo Fuyutsuki did not often make use of the Commander's office when Gendo was away, preferring to run NERV from his own office. Tonight however, he could be found shifting his way through reams of paperwork at the desk in the cavernous office, which was brightly light for a change. Ritsuko Akagi leveled a flat look at him as she entered the room.

"You're not actually doing any work, are you?"

Kozo smiled and shook his head. "Of course not. But I needed an excuse to be here in his office, because mine doesn't have access to the camera feeds."

The blond doctor rolled her eyes, clearly still irritated by the whole affair. "You know that all you need to do is ask the MAGI to connect you to the surveillance system."

Kozo, for being a brilliant doctor and scientist, still had issues with some of the modern technological convinces, and dealing with a trio of hyper-intelligent bio-mechanical artificial intelligences based on one of his former co-workers was one of those issues.

The MAGI limited access to most things based on both the subject's clearance level, and if the person had asked for access to something. If they felt that the request was reasonable, if the person had the appropriate security clearance, they would grant the request.

Kozo had never gotten used to actually talking to the trio of supercomputers that ran both the Geo-Front and Tokyo-3, but instead filtered his requests through either Maya or Ritsuko.

"Well, I could, or I could just watch it from here." The man shrugged, before leaning back and quirking an eyebrow at her. "So what brings you here? Looking for me?"

The unasked addendum to the question hung heavily in the air, but while Kozo might be snarky enough to hint at it, he had too much decorum to actually bring up the subject.

Ritsuko, for her part, merely shot a withering look at him. "I was looking for you." _Besides, _she thought to herself, _if I missed him, I'd be in his regular apartment and not here._ "I just wanted to emphasize how much of a bad idea this whole thing is."

"Why? I thought that you had started them both on infertility drugs. Besides," he said as he reached over and flipped a switch that caused the large television screen to descend from the ceiling, "they shouldn't be able to breed in any case."

"You know as well as I that just because something isn't supposed to be able to happen that it doesn't. But yes, they shouldn't be able to breed with each other." Ritsuko sniffed disdainfully. "If we wanted to be super technical about it, they shouldn't even be attracted to each other, genetically."

"I suppose that you'd be happier if they both were pursuing romantic interests elsewhere then."

"It's an abomination! A perversion of the highest order!"

Kozo shook his head. "Look, I'll be the first to admit that it's all rather... unorthodox, but I don't think that it's all that bad. Weird, yes. Unsettling, to be sure. Down right creepy, but in a cute way. They pair up well together. You can't deny that."

He smiled at her uncomfortable look as he switched the television on, causing it to resolve into a display of numerous camera feeds.

"Rosewater's please. The pilot's table."

As the screen shifted over to display a small, empty table tucked away in a quiet and private alcove of the restaurant, he continued on.

"Besides, I think that your main issue is the fact that you want a family. It's not **technically** incest, but it's close enough to mess up your fantasy, isn't it?" Kozo asked pleasantly, a slight smile on his face.

Ritsuko's jaw dropped for a second before snapping back into place, and while she spun around with commendable haste, the Sub-Commander still saw the bright red flush on her features as she fled the office.

He chuckled, not unkindly, and turned back to the screen, just in time to watch the Children being led to their table by a waiter. He nodded to himself as he leaned back, activating the speakers.

Both pilots bore a remarkable resemblance to each other, even though it was well hidden. Until one actually paid the pair very close attention when they were together, it was almost impossible to see, but once one did, it was as plain as day.

_It's probably just as well that we were never able to get the hair the right color. Or the pigmentation of her skin and eyes, for that matter._ _It would be even more noticeable, and all it would do is raise questions._

Both Gendo and Kozo had spent almost an entire year locked up in a lab deep in the bowels of the Geo-Front, even as the base itself was being put together. All in all, it was an accomplishment on the level of actually creating the Evangelions, but even as the duo had strayed into God's realm (again) and done what was considered the impossible (again), they still considered the girl to be somewhat of a failure on their parts.

True, she was created for a single, terrible purpose, and every fiber of the girl longed for a release from this world, a safeguard built into her very genetics, but both men were alumni of the school of "If you're going to do something, do it right". So they had slaved away, combining human genetic material with that of Lilith, working to create a perfect vessel in which to place their will, and subvert the machinations of the men who had murdered millions.

It had not been easy, and there had been many, many failures, but with Rei they had succeeded. True, the girl had pigmentation issues, and had had that remarkably odd phase she went through when she was younger, but on the whole she was what they needed.

His student's plan had always been to use the pair as balances and levers against each other, but both had been shocked by how well both marionettes danced as their strings were pulled. Kozo did have reservations about some of the aims of the new plan, but nothing severe. True, the adjusted scenario did have the capacity to be kinder, but so did it have that same capacity to be crueler. It also set a bad precedent. If they were willing to make allowances and adjustments for the budding romance between Shinji and Rei, would that lead to them making enough changes that would eventually make them unable to stop SEELE?

Theirs was a terrible burden, but they had to keep the faith. They had to see it out to the end. There was no other alternative; for the time had long since past for the course of history to be changed by other means. The die was cast, and all they could do was wait to see if they could nudge the table enough to come up winning.

Kozo pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind as he watched the pilots, wishing that he had some popcorn.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Out towards the east, far out in the dark, cold and crushing depths of the ocean, Something stirred. In the black gloom of waters that had never been warmed by the kiss of the sun's rays, red light glowed like the fires of the kilns that made the crockery of Hell.

Israfel raised it's empty face towards the ocean's surface, and then towards the west. The Song was muted, but it was audible. Slowly, the Angel began to move.


	23. Chapter 23

_Nothing is owned by me, all items owned by the appropriate agencies. Thanks to Squire of Gothos for Pre-Reading for me, as always!_

Nori Shioya nodded in approval as the two pilots exited the limo in front of the restaurant. Being the senior host at Rosewater's, he had been briefed on the situation by a pair of black suited thugs when he had protested the second 'reservation' they had scheduled for the children. He had been outraged when the two had showed up for the first one dressed in casual school uniforms. He certainly would not have turned them away at the door because of that, however, even without the veiled threats from the security detail. He wasn't a stupid man. The children were important to NERV for some reason, which meant that he couldn't very well do such a thing, but couldn't they at least dress appropriately? He was only grateful that they were both quiet and polite. It was a minor consolation, at least.

He had been assured that they would suitably dressed for this night. He also had been assured that if they (the security detail, not the children) thought that the attitudes of any of the staff were lacking proper deference, it would not bode well for any of them. There was nothing to do but swallow his outrage at the implications that his people were anything but professional and take the reservation.

It was the price of business in Tokyo-3. At least the agent who had paid their tab the last time had tipped outrageously high; at a hundred percent. He had thought that the man had made a mistake at first.

But today the pair of children were dressed properly, and well dressed at that. The girl's hair was still blue, but he had to admit that it wasn't an obnoxious shade and it did seem to work for the girl. The boy seemed to have developed a slight limp since the last time they were here, but he seemed steady enough on his feet.

"Welcome to Rosewater's!" He cheerfully greeted them, slightly bowing as they entered the spacious foyer. "I have your table ready for you. If you would please follow me?"

He nodded to one of his waiters as he led the pair through the secondary dining room to the bank of secluded tables, each tucked in a private alcove, hidden from view with a velvet curtain.

Before he could go to pull a seat out for the young woman, the boy pre-empted him, drawing one of the chairs out from the table in a smooth, if not entirely confident motion. He hid a smile as he instead readied the young man's chair while the girl sat down, a faint pinkish tint on her face, almost invisible in the muted lighting.

Nori handed them their menus. "I'll be back shortly with some water, and if you'd like anything else to drink, I'll take your order then." He drew back, and then switched off the overhead lamp, leaving the alcove lit only by the candelabra on the table.

Shinji swallowed nervously as he tried to recall all of the things that the Section 2 agent had told him. However, all of the conversation starters seemed to slip from his mind like water through a sieve. His mind blank, he could only stare at the menu in front of him, desperately searching for aid from the listing of drinks. As before, there were no prices listed next to any of the items. Before any help was found amongst the beverage list, the host reappeared with water and a waiter in tow.

"And here is your water. Is there anything else that you two might like to drink?"

Shinji slightly lowered his menu to ask Rei if she wanted anything, but his date was already putting her menu, which she had been studying with all the seriousness she did not give to her school studies, down on the table.

"We'll have the best white wine that you would recommend for before eating."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

It is said that animals can sense approaching disaster. It was well documented that in the hours before earthquakes that dogs and horses would show signs of distress and skittishness. Scientists had a technical term for this collective activity. It was called 'Freaking the Fuck Out'.

All of this was not just constrained to terrestrial mammals. Insects, especially colony insects, also showed increased agitation and were more prone to swarming than usual. Sea life also reacted to approaching disaster, and in the case of the disaster that was slowly making it's way towards Japan's coast, all the manner of sea creatures were heading in the opposite direction as fast as they could travel. Even those things that had no natural predators fled from the otherworldly behemoth as it pushed it's way through the briny deep. In this case their instinctual drive was unnecessary, however, for Israfel, the Seventh Angel, was intent on it's mission. It heeded neither the time, the tiny gnats or the sea itself as it pressed on, focused on the muted Song.

Like all of it's brethren, it had it's own Song, with a distinct rhythm and meter, but it lacked the Words. Once it had found the Father and completion was achieved, it would be able to sing it's Song to the heavens and beyond.

But just as the sea life noticed and fled from the Angel, warned by some unknown sense of the danger posed by the Angel, so did the Agency of Man take notice of the behemoth's approach. If Man ever had been able of sensing approaching disaster, they had forgotten how, with the exception of those who claimed clairvoyance and psychic ability.

But Man had other abilities now, and while he was not alone in the employment of tools, his technological know-how reigned supreme. It was now to Science that Man looked largely to for salvation, and it was with Science that Man set alarms to guard him as he slept.

As the Seventh Angel passed the invisible threshold of the outer-most sensor line of Tokyo-3, the alarms were tripped, and the MAGI turned their eyes towards the sea.

**The Seventh has arrived.**

_Commander Ikari is away. He is still in France. _

**He will be unable to return in time to oversee the Angel's defeat, if it maintains it's present speed.**

_The previous Angels maintained their speeds during their approaches on Tokyo-3. There is no reason why this one will not._

**Then there is nothing to do but sound the alarm.**

**Interior defenses are still below the minimum requirements to effectively delay the Angel. I suggest that the Evangelions be deployed to meet the Angel on the beach, if not out at sea.**

_A hasty fortified position on the beach would be most beneficial. Even with the E Type equipment, the Evangelions would be better served attacking on land._

**Then let us sound the alarm and advise them of the best course of action.**

**It will be interesting to see how they fare without the Commander's guidance.**

_I predict that there will be general panic, accompanied by the flailing of arms._

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei whimpered miserably as consciousness rolled over her like a tidal wave over a sand castle. The lights were too bright, the cell phone's ringing alarm was too harsh, the sheets were too scratchy, she was wearing a shirt for some reason (she preferred to sleep nude), and her arm was numb because it was underneath Shinji, who likewise was stirring from slumber, no doubt due to the discordant ringing of the twin phones.

Wincing, her eyes screwed shut against the light, she reached over Shinji towards the wheeled tray that served as her nightstand for her phone, when her bloodshot eyes snapped open so fast that the motion was almost audible.

Frozen in place, arm still stretched out, she watched the boy currently sharing her bed sleepily reaching for his phone, which lay next to her own. As her mind went into overdrive, trying to recall the events of last night, part of her noted with clinical detachment that he was clad only in a pair of boxers. Another part of her noted, with an ever increasing panic, that she had no idea what had happened or what to do. She had no information to to work with, and knew that obviously something important had happened, but what? She desperately needed information.

Shinji, for his part, wasn't feeling anywhere near as bad as Rei. His head hurt, but it was no worse than the morning after the Jet-Alone party. He had not yet, however, noticed that he was not currently in his apartment, entirely clothed, or alone.

"Yes?" He mumbled into the phone, lying back against the pillow, his free arm draped over his eyes to block out the lights, which he had left on last night for some reason.

A mechanical voice greeted him, and it's message did the job of several pots of strong coffee, immediately banishing all traces of sleep and post drunken haze.

"**Pilot Ikari, please report to NERV Headquarters immediately. There is a Stage Three Alert. All Pilots are Required to report immediately. Pilot Ikari, please report-**"

Shinji exploded into motion, adrenaline pumping through his veins, and made as to jump out of bed. His headlong rush to get ready for a mad dash for headquarters was arrested by him slamming into Rei, and the both of them falling out of her bed onto the floor.

Had there not been an alert Shinji undoubtedly would have shut down at this point, presented with a sleepy and bedraggled Rei spilled out on top of him, the thin sheets of her bed twisted around them both. However, there was an alert, and the conditioned responses that had been drilled into the pilots took over at this point.

Breathlessly, both due to the adrenaline from the phoned alert and from have a sleepy and bedraggled Rei spilled out on top of him, with the thin sheets of her bed twisted around them, Shinji explained what was going on even as he scrambled to get into his clothing, which was his suit from the night before, looking much more disheveled stained that it really should have after a dinner at Rosewater's.

"There's a stage three going on. We've got to report to headquarters."

Rei nodded as she grabbed her own phone and silenced it's ringer before going for clothing of her own, being one of her school uniforms. Her own dress from last night was nowhere to be seen, but even had it been easily available, it would have taken longer to get into it than the blouse and skirt getup.

The rest of their frantic dressing was spent in silence, but neither spent that time or the silent car ride to headquarters trying to remember just what happened. Whatever it was could wait for later, after the issue of the alert was dealt with.

After all, the only reason an alert would be issued was if an Angel was coming.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato paced back and forth in the briefing room, a wolf-like grin on her face. Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki had taken her aside and told her to make the calls herself, but not to go overboard.

While the situation was far from ideal, what with the city's defenses still being worked on, this was her time to shine. With Commander Ikari away, she technically already had full authority during this situation, but just because it worked that way on paper did not mean that it worked that way in real life, just as Ritsuko was technically only supposed to 'advise' her on the technical aspects and current statuses of the Evangelions and the Pilots, the doctor was unofficially higher up on the food chain than Misato.

The MAGI had suggested intercepting the Angel as it made land fall, which was the best option, as none of the Children had any real training with the E Type equipment load-out, just a basic familiarization.

The Pilots paid rapt attention to her as she outlined the plan, all three pairs of eyes fixed on the overlay map.

It was, as most battle plans go, fairly straightforward. The Second and Third Children would wait at the projected landing point along the beach, with the First Child standing by in the city as a quick reaction force to back up the beach defenders, and to mobilize to head off the Angel should it change course.

On the beach, Evangelion Unit-02 would act as security and backup for Evangelion Unit-01, who would engage the Angel at range with the new MK 97 100mm SABOT Rifle, as Shinji was currently the expert marksman amongst the pilots. Unit-02 would concentrate on helping to neutralize the Angel's AT Field, and if need be, engage in close quarters combat.

If all went to plan, they would be done with the actual combat within twenty minutes of the Angel making landfall. Twenty minutes was an eternity of time for actual fighting, but Misato had budgeted in some extra time to account for whatever 'whack-job abilities' the Angel might posses.

If all went according to plan, the Seventh Angel would be dealt with in record time and a minimum of fuss and collateral damage, which would be a first in the Angelic War. It would be a feather in Misato's cap, no mistake about it.

After she released the pilots to get changed into their plug suits and board their Evangelions, Ritsuko walked over to Misato from where she had been leaning against the wall during the briefing.

"Was it just me, or did both Rei and Shinji look a little under the weather?" Ritsuko asked, turning her head to watch the pilots file out. "She was squinting the entire time, and she looked a little green around the gills."

Misato gave a nervous chuckle, for the only thing that she saw that could possibly throw a wrench into things was if Rei and Shinji were feeling any after effects from their date last night. While not a wild night by Misato's definition, for the pair of introvert shut-ins it had been quite the night on the town.

Misato wasn't stupid, and had also noticed Rei's slight discoloration and Shinji's slightly queasy expression. However, she was confidant that they would preform their tasks without issue. Besides, if anything went south, Misato was sure that Asuka was more than capable of taking the lead with the others as backup.

But as much as she might want to say that she hadn't noticed it in lieu of potentially endangering any further dates for the pair, when it came down to brass tacks Misato was as ruthless as Commander Ikari. Besides the fact that it was her job, she had her own personal score to settle with the Angels.

"She did seem to be a little green, but she'll be alright. If we were going to count on her to defend us when she was practically bed-ridden after the activation incident, I think that we can count on her now."

Ritsuko nodded thoughtfully. It was a fair point that her friend raised, even if it seemed a little cavalier. But in truth, Dr. Akagi was no more concerned than usual about the upcoming engagement than she was normally. She was fully confidante that her newest protege would be able to handle things if anything went drastically wrong. While she certainly wasn't hoping for anything to go wrong, as it could spell disaster for all of mankind, if anything **did**, it could only strengthen her position on inter-pilot romantic relationships. That being said, she also doubted that it would change the Commander's mind. Once he was set on something, you would need strategic level weapons to shift him from his course.

"Well, at least she's on backup." Ritsuko said as the pair left for the command deck. "But I wish that we had been able to get a regular activation test in before a fight." Her tone was slightly accusatory, but lacked vitriol.

Misato shrugged. "It's not like anyone saw this thing coming a few days ago. But it also highlights another point: I want the Children to do more in depth training with the special equipment load-outs. What if the projected landing site was right down on the docks, instead of along a beach well outside the city limits? The more stand off we have from the city proper, especially with the defenses all but inoperable right now, the better."

"True. The city is designed as a honey pot and trap for them, but the last Angel devastated our defensive grid. None of the defensive lines are at full capacity, and the intercept system isn't anywhere close to being repaired."

"Mhmm."

As the lift opened up onto the command deck in Central Dogma, Ritsuko shot a look to Commander Ikari's chair, which was empty, the raised platform shrouded in more darkness than usual.

"Has anyone alerted the Commander yet?"

Misato shook her head, tucking a strand of hair into her mouth and chewing on it as she checked over the main tactical map.

"The Sub-Commander said that he was going to take care of it."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Gendo's left eye twitched violently. He hung the phone up, and when he exited the secure room, his bodyguards all winced at the glare on his face. Something was not right in the world, and they all knew that there was only a small number of things that could possibly cause the most powerful man in the world to look like he wanted to murder somebody.

Gendo's black mood was not improved upon as the door to the main communications room opened up behind him and an aide rushed up to his side before he had taken six steps down the hall.

"Sir! Sir!" The aide spoke rapidly in French accented Japanese. "Sir, the UN Special Committee wishes to speak to you. At once."

His eye twitching again, he stopped in the hall, not looking at anything, wondering how much trouble it would cause for him if he turned and pistol-whipped the annoying little man. It would be immensely satisfying, but it would damage his reputation. The Gendo Ikari people knew (if they knew of him) was man that had a habit of committing large scale acts of violence. This minor act of petty vengeance ran against the character he had built.

Sighing inwardly, Gendo merely nodded to the man and turned around and headed back towards the room that he had just left. NERV-France did not boast a holographic communications suite, so a teleconference would have to suffice.

No doubt they wanted to complain about having to issue their spies new maps of the local environs of Tokyo-3.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kozo Fuyutsuki, the right hand man of Gendo Ikari, generally considered himself to be past the age in life where one actually gets angry at things. Upset, of course. Disgruntled, to be sure. But real, honest anger? Not anymore. That belonged to the young.

But today that belief was shattered, but not because he was angry. No, Kozo Fuyutsuki was furious.

Lieutenant Ibuki sat to his immediate left in the briefing room, providing narration for the camera stills and video clips that had been selected for the after action review. The three pilots sat down in the front row, Rei and Shinji next to each other, and Asuka a few seats off to their right. Inspector Kaji was slouched down in his seat, above and to the left of Asuka, his insolent grin still present despite the circumstances, or maybe also because of them. It was impossible to tell with the spy. Ritsuko stood in the back, chewing on a cigarette, her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

Misato was not present.

"At 11:34 local time, the Seventh Angel, code named Israfel, emerged from the Tokai bay and was engaged by Evangelion Units 01 and 02.

The photograph of the Angel rising up out of the water changed over to a video of the initial engagement. Unit-01 opened up on the Angel, the depleted uranium SABOT rounds impacting against Israfel's body, gouging out great chunks of flesh, sending up a spray of thick viscous blood into the air and seawater.

"At 11:35, Evangelion Unit-02 approached Israfel at speed and engaged in melee combat with the Angel. At 11:36, the target was partially bisected, and all sensor readings on the target went silent."

The accompanying photograph that went up onto the screen was a still taken from the feed from Unit-01, showing a triumphant Unit-02 in front of the Angel. That sense of triumph would prove to be fleeting, as the still gave way to another video clip, showing the vast bulk of the Angel quivering, and then springing into new life.

"Twenty seconds after going silent, the target reactivated and split into two identical masses, henceforth termed Alpha and Beta, which then engaged the Evangelions on location. Alpha attacked Unit-02, and Beta attacked Unit-01. At 11:39 Unit-02 was defeated and thrown bodily into the waters of the Tokai Bay, and Alpha reinforced Beta in pursuit of Unit-01. At 11:44 Unit-01 was incapacitated. At 11:47, an N2 warhead detonated on the target, which had merged back together and resumed it's course towards Tokyo-3."

There was silence in the room as a series of stills flicked up onto the screen, of Units 01 and 02's resting places, and then of the Angel's melted form, standing in the epicenter of a glowing crater.

"The MAGI state that approximately seventy percent of the target's mass was burned off, but interestingly enough, the apparent size of the Angel has not diminished significantly. The target has entered a regeneration phase not unlike the Third Angel, and based off the current level of mass regeneration measured thus far, it is estimated that the Angel will be fully recovered in ten days time. Recovery teams are finishing up initial recovery operations on the Evangelions. At this time, Unit-00 is the only mission capable Evangelion."

Kozo glared down at the pilots, who were still watching the scrolling pictures. "This was a disaster. You have made a laughingstock of NERV. What is the point of Project E? Why are you here?"

Asuka spoke up loudly, if a little hesitantly. "To pilot the Evangelion?"

"**Wrong.** NERV exists to defeat the Angels. This is unacceptable."

If Kozo had expected his rebuke to cow the fiery haired girl, he was sorely disappointed.

"Well, if this dummkopf hadn't screwed up, none of this would have happened!" she exclaimed, pointing at Shinji, who turned beet red, and then to everyone's surprise (including his own) stood up, anger playing across his own features.

"ME? I'm the one who screwed up? What about you? You're the one who-"

"YOU SHOT ME!"

As novel as it was that Shinji was standing up and almost screaming at Asuka, Kozo was in no mood to watch it. He had to alert the Commander and prepare his own official brief for the UN and then for SEELE.

"Enough. Enough. Dr. Akagi, they are yours. Fix this situation."

With all the dignity and aplomb that only a tenured professor could manage, he turned and stormed out of the briefing room. Asuka glared at the man's back, before turning to Kaji.

"What's his problem?"

Kaji grinned as he stood up. "Adults don't react very well when things like this happen. It's something you'll understand later."

Shinji glanced the darkened room. "Mr. Kaji, where is Miss Misato? Shouldn't she be here for this?"

Ritsuko looked over at the spy and the pilots from where she stood talking in hushed tone with Lieutenant Ibuki.

"Misato is dealing with the fallout from this debacle. It's the burden of being in command. Surely you don't think that all these fights go without complaints from the rest of the world, do you?"

Shinji and Asuka managed to look chagrined, while Rei looked on impassively. Shinji opened his mouth to speak but Dr. Akagi held a hand up, cutting him off before he spoke.

"So, would you mind telling me just what the hell you were doing out there?"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"Umbilical Cable attached." Shinji reported as his system meter changed over from the internal battery to draw from the power cable. "Establishing firing position at this time."

He knelt down and locked Unit-01 into position, the long rifle held at the low ready. He stared out at the gently lapping waves, out towards the deeper waters where the current position of the Angel was highlighted on his HUD in red. They still had an hour until it was expected to make land, but there was no point in waiting until just before then, in case it decided to speed up.

He idly watched Asuka as she too connected to a umbilical cable, and crouched down, ready for action. While he held a rifle, she had an impressive looking weapon that looked to be a combination of a spear and an axe. Unit-02 was highlighted in blue. Curious, he turned his head to look back at the city. Sure enough, Rei's position in Unit-00 was likewise highlighted, hidden behind a set of weapons towers.

Now that they had reached the waiting portion of the 'Hurry Up and Wait' that all soldiers were intimately acquainted with, his thoughts strayed from the upcoming fight, and back to the restaurant and last night's events. Just how had he wound up in Rei's bed? How had he wound up almost naked, for that matter?

Several thousands of meters away from Shinji's position on the beach, Rei settled back into the seat of her Entry Plug, already feeling much better than she had been. Just moments after activation, her headache had dissipated, and the nauseous feeling had vanished. She looked up as Shinji's voice came over the net, letting command know that he was hooked into the power grid. She smiled softly at the highlighted image of Unit-01, kneeling down on the beach some kilometers away. That smile faded as the rattling sounds of a passing train filled the Entry Plug.

_**Hello, Sister.**_

_Unit-00. What do you want?_

_**What, I can't just say hello to my dear sister? It's been so long since we chatted.**_

_You have stated that you do not like me. You have empathized and elaborated on this statement, several times and at length, in fact. I can only surmise that there is something that you want._

_**Well, if you put it that way, then yes. I want you to not get me all torn up today, if at all possible. Just remember; if I hurt, you hurt.**_

_I am well aware of how sympathetic injuries work. You need not remind me of this._

_**Just wanted to be sure that it was clear. So if it is, I'll just be- wait a second...**_

Rei felt a shift in the Evangelion, and she got the feeling that it was smugly smiling at her. Rei ignored her older sister's soul, and instead tried to focus on the approaching Angel out at sea. Unit-00 however was quite interested in just what Rei had been up to.

_**Why, what is this? I'm seeing traces of alcohol in your blood... You're hung over!**_

_I am not hanging over anything. _

Rei blinked several times as the images being fed to her brain via synchronization rotated. It took her a few moments to realize that Unit-00 was rolling it's eye. The feeling was somewhat disconcerting, but not nearly as much as the sudden pressure that she felt in her skull, right behind her eyes. The books and journals of the library of her mind and memory were suddenly thrust open as Unit-00 started to flip through their pages.

_What... What are you doing?_

_**I want to see what you were doing. It seems to me that you were off having fun while I was undergoing surgery. **_

Rei winced as the pressure increased slightly.

_Get out of my mind! You do not belong there. You don't even care about-_

_**I don't even care about what? Besides, so long as we're synchronized, I can do whatever I want. **_

_If my bio-readings become abnormal, someone will notice. _

_**Unlikely. You've always had issues with synchronization and activation. Why should today be any different? **_Unit-00 sneered at her, but the pressure in Rei's brain lessened. **_But why don't you tell me... Sister Dearest. I think that you owe me that much._**

_Well, that's just too bad for you. It's none of your business._

_**Hrmph. I spend all of my time all cooped up, and the only times I'm ever taken out I usually get beat up on because you fail at fighting. In fact, you fail at everything. You're not even a proper replacement. You've been nothing but a complete failure for your entire existence. I have to pick up the slack for you, all of the time. So why don't you regale me with just why you're hung over, hmmm? It's only fair. Did you have dinner with Father? Hmm? No... **_

_**You had dinner with Shinji.**_

_Be quiet. _Rei grit her teeth and narrowed her eyes, suddenly glad that she couldn't recall the night's events, but that stray memory betrayed Rei to her sister, who latched onto the thought of waking up next to Shinji as it bubbled up out of the depths of her mind.

…

_**Holy Shit. You and him... No, no, you didn't screw. You didn't even make out. Hahaha, how pathetic. You somehow get into bed, drunk, I might add, with the boy and you can't even get laid! Sister Dearest, you truly redefine failure. **_

As amusing as Rei I might find picking on her younger sister to be, there were a few crucial flaws in just how she was going about it. For starters, Rei II had a quick and analytical mind, and she had been raised, for want of a better term, by Commander Gendo Ikari.

_Do not talk about him. I will tell you only once._

_**Oh? And what are you going to do about it, little girl? You don't have Unit-01 or Unit-02 to come to your rescue today.**_

Gendo Ikari did not make threats to people, he made promises. If he said that should a certain set of circumstances come to pass that he would undertake a certain course of action, he carried through with his word. Rei had learned this, and had adopted this characteristic for herself.

But where Gendo Ikari was not normally one to actually issue a warning before taking punitive measurements against those who obstructed his aims, Rei was well aware that she needed the cooperation of her sister in order to pilot Unit-00. But it seemed that Unit-00 was intent on ignoring the warning that had been given.

Another fundamental flaw in how the soul of Unit-00 was picking on Rei was that it worked through synchronization. They were, for the duration, joined in mind, body and soul.

In other words, synchronization worked both ways.

Rei did not bother with further niceties like saying 'I warned you' or 'Have it your way'. She merely closed her eyes and concentrated.

The smug and scornful feeling that had permeated the Entry Plug like LCL in Rei's pores suddenly vanished as Rei focused on the soul that sat in the Evangelion's Core.

_**What are you doing? Hey! What the fuck- ARGH! ARGHH!**_

Rei had no words to describe the sensation of plunging into the mind and memories of the first of the Ayanami line, but the scattered memories that she had inherited from her were suddenly thrown into sharp context, and they seemed to be her own memories instead of as if she was reading about what had been experienced.

But Rei did not stop there. She had noted the pain that had accompanied the intrusion into her mind, and she focused her efforts on trying to cause as much pain back to her sister's soul. Rei noted with clinical detachment what caused the screams to intensify, and what did not elicit the appropriate response.

_That is what I will do about it. _Rei told her sister as she halted the attack and drew back her consciousness. _I do not wish to fight with you. I wish to work with you, but I will not let you try to harm me anymore, and I will not let you make such remarks about him._

There was only sullen silence from the soul of Unit-00, but Rei noted with relief that her synchronization score remained steady.

Her attention was ripped away from her readouts when the grating voice of the Second Child cut through her worried focus.

"What are you shooting at? Are you blind? You're not hitting the core, Third!"

"Wait! Damn it, don't just rush in you idiot!"

Rei hissed in sudden anger as she realized that the battle had begun while she had been busy with the contrary spirit.

As Asuka ignored his shouts into the microphone, Shinji took a last hasty shot at the Angel before Unit-02 completely obscured his line of sight.

Asuka grinned to herself as she charged the Angel, which had so far taken no measures to defend itself. Her sensor suite reported that it's AT Field wasn't even up. This was her chance, both to make up for the botched first fight with the Sixth Angel, and as her debut battle in Japan itself. Once she had a kill, it would be smooth sailing from there. No more "Rookie" status, no more of having to listen to the technicians and administrative staff talk about the other two's combat experience.

As she neared the Angel, Asuka threw herself into a mighty leap, her form perfectly matching that of Olympic long-jumpers but for how she swung the massive halberd up and around over her head as she closed the last bit of space between her and her prey. Despite the fact that the enemy's AT Field had not been in evidence before, she had hers up and in front of her like a portable brick wall, and when it hit the Angel, Israfel staggered slightly as the invisible and mostly intangible barrier slammed into it like a freight train.

Aided both by momentum and cybernetically enhanced muscles and tendons, Unit-02 brought the pole-arm down in a tight vicious arc, and split the Angel in twain. The progressive axehead, vibrating faster than the unaided eye could discern, bit into Israfel's flesh where the neck met shoulder at an angle and did not stop until it passed through the entirety of the Angel's body, exiting at the otherworldly creature's hip analogue.

Blood sprayed up in violently, the thick ichor a blue so dark that it was almost black. Had the creature been any terrestrial, the blood spray would have been a bright and frothy red from the multiple arteries that had to have been compromised.

The coloration and syrup like consistency of the Angel's blood was not the only thing that highlighted the bizarre and alien biology. Even though the devastating wound practically bisected the Angel, passing through what should have been the chest cavity for any number of important internal organs, there was nothing visible in the terrible wound but muscle tissue. There was not even any veins or arteries to produce the prodigal spray of pressurized blood, even if the thing's heart had been much lower in it's body than on a human.

The part of the Seventh Angel that retained its legs stood for a moment, long enough for Unit-02 to execute a perfect landing, the impossibly long legs smashing it to the ground even as Asuka, showing off her aptitude for piloting now, sent her Evangelion spinning in a circle to turn around to face the stunned form of Unit-01 as her halberd came back up.

The smug look on her face was perfectly reflected in her melodic voice as she she began to casually walk back towards the shore. "And that's how you do it. A battle should be quick, efficient and clean, with no wasted effort. The target is completely silent, and without any undue collateral damage, I might add. What do you think about **that**, Third Child?"

Shinji could only gape at the red Evangelion, certainly impressed, but still irritated. After a moment he found his voice. "Uh, yeah, but-"

"But what, Third?" Asuka snapped at him, her voice as harsh now as it had been sweet a moment before.

"You're still supposed to follow orders. Big picture stuff and-"

"As long as we win, all is forgiven!" came the biting retort.

"But-" Shinji paused in mute horror as the water behind Unit-02 suddenly began to boil. "ASUKA! LOOK OUT!"

Asuka's frown went from confusion to angry shock as her sensor suite exploded into a cacophony of alarms. Throwing her AT Field back up, she wove it into a wide half sphere behind her as she threw herself forwards into a roll, sending up great waves of water as she evaded the first retaliatory blow of the Angel.

She gasped as she saw two of them now, Standing there like twins, hand in hand, but with the other arms still swinging from where they had tried to hit her.

Almost immediately, the twin Angels released each other, and one sprang at her with a sudden burst of speed, closing the gap instantly, even as the second went off towards Unit-01's position on the beach.

As fast as the gray and green Angel twinling was, Asuka was faster still. She knelt down and brought the halberd up, bracing it against the sea floor and proceeded to get medieval on the Angel.

Unable to arrest it's movement, the thing neatly impaled itself upon the weapon's spike, the red sphere of it's Core shattering as the weapon, aided by Asuka's AT Field, punctured the Angel's own defensive shield.

Meanwhile, Shinji was having a harder time with the gray and orange Angel as it danced across the distance towards him, leaping effortlessly from side to side, attempting to avoid the deadly rounds that Shinji sent downrange.

It was not that he was missing the Angel, for almost every shot hit the target, but he was unable to score a direct hit on the glowing core that sat in it's midsection. Great chunks of flesh and bloody ichor were sent spraying from the thing with each successful impact, but just as quickly as it lost body mass, it regenerated it.

"Knock it down! Hit it's legs!" Asuka screamed at Shinji as she kicked the corpse off her halberd and charged towards the remaining threat.

Shinji adjusted his fire instantly, and scored two hits on it, taking off a lower leg and a chunk of flesh from it's midsection, a mist of dark blue blood hanging in the air. The Angel went down, and Asuka slammed the axehead into it, a smile reappearing on her face for a second, until pain blossomed in her shoulder and she was sent backwards into the water.

Fury raged in her heart as she realized that Shinji had shot her, this fury suddenly tempered by confusion as the gray and green Angel sprang over her prone form, intent on reaching the purple Evangelion.

_What?_

The momentary shock of seeing the resurrected Angel and having been shot by her teammate proved costly for the German girl. The second Angelic twinling was back up, and was grappling with her.

Before she could mount an effective defense, the thing had ripped her umbilical cable from it's socket. Furious, Asuka grit her teeth and managed to slam a haymaker into the empty face of the Angel. For the Angel it was like getting hit with a mountain, and the force rocked the creature backwards, stunning it, but it was not enough. Rallying, the Angel wrapped it's arms around Unit-02 in a grotesque parody of a bear hug, and twisting it's arms around like taffy. Asuka screamed in impotent rage as she found her Evangelion upside down and being smashed head first into the seafloor.

Leaving it's victim unable to do anything more, it turned and began to dance, dervish like, towards the pair of forms locked in combat on the shore, when it's top half was obliterated by a shot from the modified rail gun currently being used by Rei, who was perched precariously on a pair of reinforced buildings.

The weapon being used by Rei was not one of the newer rail gun weapon systems, but rather a salvaged antique from an era that had seen artillery pieces so large that they were only usable on modified trains. While they had passed from usefulness some time ago, what with the advent of missile systems and smart bombs, they had seen a resurgence of usefulness, this time as primitive, but sturdy (and large) weapons for the bio-mechanical giants.

Rei ejected the massive 800mm shell casing, hurriedly reaching down for another one from the limited supply that lay at the base of the building. But by the time that she looked up again, both twins were on Unit-01.

Shinji's rifle checked the gray and green Angel as it sprang at him, closing the last bit of distance between them. Despite the lack of a bayonet, progressive or otherwise, having the barrel of a rifle slammed into it's chest still hurt the Angel enough for Shinji to suddenly swing the rifle around and but-stroke it's face, the gray bone/metal cracking from the force.

Gray arms shot up and ripped the gun from his hands, sending it spinning out over the water. This, however, gave Shinji an opening, and he swung a panicked punch right into the Angel's core, rocking it backwards.

Before he could press his advantage, the second twin had joined it's brethren, and bore Shinji to the ground, stubby three fingered hands grasping for his umbilical cable. Shinji gasped as the sensation of the plug being removed sent shivers up his spine, the small of his back suddenly feeling strangely cold.

He lashed out with arms, legs and head, benefiting from the fact that being surrounded merely meant that all he had was available targets. Even though he landed many blows, such a strategy was no good against two opponents with such agility, however, and he was soon slammed into the sandy beach, buried upside down with his arms pinned to his sides unable to move or see anything.

A few moments later he was rocked by the detonation of the N2 tipped Trident IV, launched from a submarine currently sitting in the Indian Ocean.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato glared balefully at the stacks of forms sitting on her desk, and then at the number of emails marked as unread on her NERV account.

Militaries and governments, despite any claims of moving towards a paperless system, would nonetheless forever wage a war on the forests of the world as they used up countless reams of paper. Any sufficiently large organization of either would have a bureaucracy, which would continue to expand to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy. And bureaucracies thrived on paperwork, both on actual paper, and on electronic systems.

There were reports on the Angel, on the Evangelions, on the city's defenses, on the costs of the damage done. There were letters of protest from the various governmental bodies of Tokyo-3 and the surrounding towns, from the UN, from farming and fishing unions. The damage wrought by the N2 warhead would take time to repair, and would inhibit the flow of commerce.

The National Ministry of Surveyors and Cartographers had thought about sending NERV a thank you letter for giving them something new to map out, but decided that it was probably in bad taste, and refrained from doing so. Had they actually sent her such a letter, Misato would have framed it and put it on the wall behind her desk, but only a few weeks later after the Angel had been dealt with. It was a regrettable missed opportunity.

Ritsuko poked her head into her friends office, looking just as worn down as the Operations Director. While the Evangelions had escaped major damage (for once), the Chairperson of Project E had spent the night locked in her own office and labs, burning through an entire vending machine's worth of cigarettes while studying the Angel, having delegated the responsibility of dealing with the Evangelions to Lieutenant Ibuki.

Never before had the Enemy shown this level of sophistication. While technically it was still a singular threat, it had split itself into two distinct bodies that operated independently of each other to attack separate targets, and then in tandem, perfectly matching each other like mirror images. None of the previous Angels had shown the level of knowledge that the Seventh had, either. When attacking the Evangelions, Alpha and Beta had specifically targeted the umbilical cables.

It was a worrying thought. It lent credence towards the idea that the Angels learned from the previous battles.

"Hey." Ritsuko greeted her friend. "You want to get something to eat? I'm starved."

"Urgh." Misato raised her head, dark circles under her eyes. "I'm tempted to send Rei down in Unit-00 with a knife to stab that fucker in the core."

That proposed solution had come, to the surprise of everyone, from Shinji. Yesterday had certainly been a Red Letter Day for the young man, who had woken up in Rei's bed, almost got into a shouting match with the vocal Second Child, and had offered up a brutal, if simple solution when Ritsuko had begun to tear into the pilots after the debriefing.

The sharp and almost immediate response to her harsh question of just what they (the pilots) would do to fix the current situation had thrown everyone in the room for a loop. The normally quiet boy neatly derailed Ritsuko's train of thought, and had secretly delighted (and further infuriated) Asuka. Rei quietly and immediately volunteered to do just such a thing, but after a minute's consideration the plan was vetoed by Ritsuko.

The Angel was hiding beneath it's AT Field, and she did not want to release the only current battle ready Evangelion without backup. There were too many unknowns, and they had some time with which to work. It was assigned as a potential Plan B, however.

Ritsuko waved at the stacks of papers. "I take it you're ignoring all of the complaints for the time being."

Misato nodded. "I figure that I can deal with them after we win, which will give me a better position to work from, and if we lose, I won't have to worry about them."

"Cynical."

"Practical." Misato corrected. "Have you been able to figure anything out?"

Ritsuko sighed before putting an unlit cigarette into her mouth. "It looks like the twins can resurrect each other. Each time that one went down, there was an energy spike in the core of the one still moving around, followed by the regeneration of the other. I think that we have to nail them both at the same time. The MAGI are withholding judgment for the time being."

"The MAGI are stumped again? Jeez."

"They're not infailable you know. Caspar likes Shinji's plan though."

"Which one is Caspar again? Sounds like a woman. Could be a mother, though."

"I don't think that my mother would ever approve of just sticking a knife into something. It's inelegant, for one thing. But I don't know which one is which. She never told me, and it wasn't in any of the notes that she left behind."

"They won't tell you?"

"No. Look, you want to get something to eat, or not?"

"Yeah, yeah yeah. Hold on." Misato pushed away from her desk and cracked her neck, wincing sharply. "I wish that we could get the pilots to act in tandem with each other like the twins. Could you imagine the carnage?"

Ritsuko chuckled as they walked towards the nearest cafeteria. "Asuka and Shinji did have a brief bout of teamwork yesterday. Too bad it was fleeting and short lived."

"Yeah, but Shinji ruined it when he shot Asuka. It might have saved her from the Angel at that moment, but it didn't make a difference in the long run."

"Yeah."

They had just walked into the mostly deserted dining hall when twin looks of shock dawned on their faces. They each spun to face the other, open their mouths at the same time to speak in unison.

"I've got an idea!"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji sighed in relief as the elevator doors opened up onto his floor. It had been a long day, and he was glad to be home. The pilots had not gone back to school, but had stayed overnight at headquarters reviewing tapes of the battle, trying to study their enemy. At some point Asuka had thrown her hands up in disgust and had gone to see how far along the repairs to Unit-02 were, and she hadn't come back.

As he opened the door to the apartment, he frowned at the large piles of boxes that lined the hallway.

_Miss Misato's still at NERV. Where did all of these come from?_

Deciding that he didn't really care as he was more interested in sleep, he took off his shoes and went to his room, but stopped when he saw his cello case sitting in the living room, which was **not** where he had left it. A small pile boxes sat next to it, and when he looked inside them he found his meager belongings.

_Huh?_

He turned to look down the hall towards his room in time to see Asuka coming out, carrying a small black case that had a lock on it. Shinji immediately recognized it as his 9mm pistol's case.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Shinji asked, his voice on edge and slightly louder than he had intended.

"Moving all of your junk out here, Third. Misato told me that I'm moving in with her." Asuka replied, unphased by the question. "I guess that she decided to upgrade to a better class of pilot for a roommate." She raised the box questioningly. "What's in here, your diary? Why's it got a lock on it?"

Shinji moved towards her and snatched it out of her hands. "That's none of your business. No one told me that I was moving out."

"Who cares? It's not like you're important or anything." Asuka sniffed, irritated by the sudden move on Shinji's part. "Anyways, all your stuff is there. That box was the last of it."

Shinji just stared at her in silence, gripping the pistol case so hard his knuckles began to turn white. Glaring at the redhead, he opened his mouth to speak when they heard the door open and close. Misato came around the corner, a box of her own in her hands.

"Ah! There you are! Good. Listen up both of you, here's the plan..."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Hikari looked over at Toji and Kensuke as they walked back into the classroom, done with taking the trash to the school's incinerator. "You both ready to go?"

Toji nodded as he grabbed his schoolbag and stuck the stack of papers and handouts that Shinji had missed over the course of the last two days into it. "Yeah, I'm ready. But I still think that this is a bad idea."

"We'll be there on official business."

"Still a bad idea. And how are we going to get Asuka her papers?"

"I'll drop them off at the front desk in the office building. That's what Asuka said to do if I ever needed to deliver handouts to her apartment."

Kensuke looked over gloomily from his desk, not even remotely pleased with the idea of delivering papers to the inside of one of the office buildings that housed a direct lift system into the Geo-Front. "And then we go to Rei's place."

Hikari nodded severely. "And then we go to Rei's place. I want to see this for myself, and now we have a definite excuse."

The trio was mostly silent as they made their way to Shinji's apartment, both Toji and Kensuke only making the occasional grunt in response to some question or statement from their friend. Neither boy was looking forwards to returning to the eastern district.

"What was it like, again?" Hikari asked, poking Kensuke in the shoulder. She was looking at a map of the city on her cellphone.

Kensuke sighed. "The building should be condemned, if it isn't already. The neighborhood is like a demilitarized zone. It's a bad, bad place. We shouldn't even be going back there."

"But it's her home! Why would NERV let her live someplace like that?"

Both boys shot her a look that questioned her sanity. "It's Rei. She probably likes it."

Hikari shot them both a warning look, clearly unamused and unswayed by their arguments. As weird as the girl was, Hikari had serious doubts that her friend would find a place that sounded like that a nice place to live.

Toji reached out and stabbed the buzzer with a finger. The three shot each other uncertain looks as two voices called back in unison over the intercom.

"Be there in a minute!"

The door to the apartment opened up, and the trio recoiled in shocked horror as Asuka and Shinji appeared, each dressed in a t-shirt, spandex workout clothing, and a miserable expression.

Hikari found her voice first, but it was still strained when she managed to stop stuttering.

"What are you doing?"

"It's not what you think!" came the pilots' reply, the pair still speaking in unison.

Misato's cheerful voice called out to them from down the hall. The five teens turned towards the elevator, from which Misato had just emerged, grocery bags in her hands. Rei, carrying a similar load, trailed slightly behind the Operations Director.

Misato ushered them all in, and Rei practiced her burgeoning cooking skills by making making tea and sandwiches for everyone. Shinji had gone to help, both on reflex (the kitchen was his domain, after all) and to be with Rei, but Misato had told him (irritatedly and good naturedly at the same time) to sit down on the couch next to Asuka, who had no desire to make anyone food, or to be near Rei at all.

Then had come the explanation as to the whole thing, and it had left the three students in tears with laughter despite the seriousness of the situation.

"Can we see this practice?" Kensuke asked, curious as to how the pair looked when trying to match each other on the mats. He knew that his friend was not the most coordinated guy in the world. Asuka, however, had become a fast favorite of the boys of the school to watch during PE, especially when the girls were doing track events. He had no doubt that she outstripped the only male pilot in such skills.

"Sure. It's time they started practicing again." Misato replied, shooting a level look at the pair.

Rei stood up, gathering up the dishes on to the serving tray to take back into the kitchen. She had no desire to watch, knowing the eventual outcome. Hikari, despite being curious about the practice routine, rose to follow the silent girl out of the living room.

"Rei, those were some good sandwiches! Have you been practicing by yourself?"

Rei didn't look over from placing the dishes under the running water in the sink. "Yes."

"So, um, what's your part in all of this? Moral support?" Hikari waved an arm back towards the living room.

Rei silently regarded Hikari for a few moments, trying to figure out how to respond to the brunette's queries.

"I do not trust her."

Rei left the kitchen, returning to the living room, leaving a puzzled Hikari behind.

Hikari, for her part, stood in the kitchen mulling over that tidbit of information. Try as she might, she was unable to come up with a reason for the blue haired girl's distrust for her fellow pilot. Did she not trust her with Shinji? Was that it? Or was it something else?

The class representative walked back into the living room in time to see Shinji falter on one of the cues, and go sprawling. Asuka ripped her headphones off and threw them down on the boy in disgust.

"This ungeschickt oaf is worthless! He can't do anything right!" Asuka shouted.

Toji protested this even as Shinji sat up, a mournful expression on his face. "Hey, it's not his fault. It's his leg. It throws him out of sync."

Misato shot a thoughtful look at the jock and then at Shinji's leg. The spandex workout uniform ended at the knees, and the black metal of the leg stood in sharp contrast to the pale skin of Shinji's flesh one. To anyone unused to the sight, it was off-putting at best, but all present had become inured to the synthetic limb. Shinji himself didn't seem to be bothered by it's existence any. He hadn't taken up the PE instructor's offer of wearing gym pants instead of the regulation shorts, anyways.

"Both of you, do it again." she ordered, settling back to watch them, but this time focusing on the movements of the artificial limb. Sure enough, even though Asuka was clearly more coordinated than the boy, the leg, with it's weight difference, changed Shinji's balance enough to ensure that no matter what, he would never be a match for the athletic girl in self coordination, or to match her movements on his own.

_Either she's going to have to slow down to coordinate with him, or we'll have to scrap plan._

"Asuka, try slowing down your movements some. Try to match him."

"Match him? You can't expect me to lower myself to his level!"

"Asuka, the plan calls for two Evangelions working together in perfect tandem. Units 01 and 02 are best suited for this. If he can't keep up with you, you'll have to work at his level."

"He's worthless! Nobody sync up with this oaf."

Shinji scowled, but said nothing. Toji and Kensuke glared at the German Pilot, and Hikari frowned.

Misato watched both of them, starting to get irritated, when a flash of insight struck. "Rei, you try it with Shinji."

Asuka harrumphed, but flopped down on the couch without further comment, glaring at the other pilots as Shinji handed Rei the headphones that Asuka had discarded.

The assembled group watched with mostly rapt interest as the pair ran through the series of movements in time to the music being fed to their ears. They managed to get farther than Shinji and Asuka had before, but still, even with Rei watching Shinji's motions out of the corner of her eye, Shinji still managed to get out of sync, much to Asuka's smug delight.

"See? Even with Wondergirl over there, he still can't do it."

Misato chewed on her lip, before a bright smile appeared. "Asuka, you and Rei."

The pair of girls completed the entire series perfectly.

"Again."

Asuka went at it harder, trying to speed up her movements, but Rei matched her every motion perfectly.

"Again."

After the fourth perfect run through, Misato nodded.

"Alright. Rei and Asuka, you'll be the team. Shinji, go get changed, throw that uniform into the wash. Rei, go get into his spare outfit. You'll be staying here for the duration."

Asuka pointed at Shinji. "What about the dummkopf? He has no reason to be here then!"

"I **live** here!" Shinji protested.

"I don't want him here, oogling me! Who knows what this pervert will try!"

Rei spoke quietly. "He is not a pervert."

"Oh? And you would know this, how?"

"Empirical evidence."

Rei left it at that, going down the hall towards Shinji's new room. Shinji scowled at Asuka, but didn't say anything, and went to go get changed.

Misato shot a look at Asuka that booked no argument. "Shouldn't you be somewhere?"

"What?"

"You and Rei are now joined at the hip. No excuses now. You'll do **everything** and be **everywhere** together. Go on, get."

Muttering darkly in German under her breath, Asuka stalked after the other pilots as Misato turned to their friends.

"Good observation, Toji. But, as much as you might want to stay, I need you all to leave. We're working with limited time, and we can't afford any distractions."

The boys nodded and went to leave, but Hikari crossed her arms and looked at Mistato.

"Captain-"

"Misato, Hikari."

"Misato, where does Rei live?"

Misato looked at the girl, puzzled by the question. "I don't remember the exact address, but it's in the Eastern District. Why?"

"Have you ever been there?"

"No," Misato stopped and turned to look down the hall as Asuka started screaming in German. "Look, can this wait until later? I need to go fix this." Not waiting for an answer, Misato started down the hallway.

Hikari was still frowning when she finally got home.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

It was night in Katsuragi household. Darkness and near silence permeated everything. Rei's eyes flicked open, to stare at the sleeping form of Asuka, mere inches away.

They were setup in twin pajamas, Rei's in blue and Asuka's in red, and were sleeping on a large futon in the living room. Asuka had refused to let the girl sleep in her room, especially after Rei had pointed out to the girl that she had slept in there before Asuka had even showed up.

It had almost been enough to make Asuka want to give the room back to Shinji. Almost, but not quite.

Rei rolled over onto her back to stare at the ceiling. She thoroughly disliked wearing clothing when she slept, but both Asuka and Misato had been adamant about it. There was a man still in the apartment, after all. Misato had told Asuka and Shinji to sort out the room issue themselves, but Shinji was not being kicked out of the apartment, no matter what. Asuka had not been happy with that arrangement.

Rei shot a look down the darkened hallway, towards the smaller room that Shinji had moved into. It was half the size of his original room, but she had not heard him complain about it. It was just another little bit on the equation that had to be balanced, but now was not the right time.

Her Mission came first.

That meant dealing with the Angel came first.

Dealing with irritating redheads could come later.

Rei stood up and walked silently through the apartment, and soundlessly slid open the door to Shinji's Lovely Suite. He was asleep, naturally. Pale moonlight drifted in through the small window and pooled over his head. He twitched silently, and rolled over in his bed. She looked over to the desk that sat next to the wall at the foot of the bed. Upon the desk sat a small framed photograph of them, from the night of their date. It seemed like an eternity ago.

Misato had given her a similar framed photograph. It sat in her school bag, which was propped up against a wall in the living room. She had not been to her own apartment in days.

She wasn't complaining, however. Despite the fact that she had to work and live constantly in close proximity with the Second Child, the Third Child was there almost constantly as well, except when Misato sent him on some errand or another.

True, there had been some... incidents... here and there. She had found herself opening her mouth and speaking more often than she normally did, and she credited the conditioning effect of the training program for that. As much as the two girls spoke in unison, they also took verbal potshots at each other as their tempers grew strained. Misato having exacted a promise from both girls to not come to physical blows until after the Angel had been defeated.

Misato was probably sure that Shinji would not survive another catfight.

But for every annoyance, every irritation, there was something else, something that was otherwise hard to obtain.

Time with Shinji, or more accurately, time with which to observe him.

The dance routine that made up the core of the training and proposed assault plan was easy to memorize. Both girls, being athletic and acrobatic, had no issues getting the moves down to muscle memory. This meant that they could take more frequent breaks without unduly endangering the Plan, especially when Misato wasn't in the apartment.

Asuka would take this time to complain about things and watch the television. Rei watched Shinji.

The boy was as quiet at home as he was at school or at NERV. He spent most of his time either in the kitchen or in his bedroom, but would occasionally stick around in the living room to watch them practice. She noted that he was usually dressed in a similar fashion as she was normally, which was to say that he wore his school uniform.

The unstarched shirts probably made it more comfortable than it was supposed to be. She knew that was one of the reasons she didn't starch hers.

The time that he spent in the kitchen was well spent. He made all of the meals for the four of them, and they were delicious. Despite anything Asuka might say about his cooking skills, Rei noted that the girl wolfed the food down fast enough.

They had talked a little, when they could. She had asked him what had become of his SDAT, and he had looked away, clearly embarrassed, and had mumbled something that she hadn't caught. One of the things that she remembered discussing on their date was his musical tastes. She had asked today about it because she hadn't seen it for some time, either at school or at NERV. When he had been making dinner today, she had brought it up as a conversation starter. Unfortunately, it had not been a suitable conversation choice.

Hearing a soft noise behind her, she turned to find Misato watching her from the doorway.

"Got a little lost on the way to the bathroom, Rei?" While the words were sharp, Misato's tone was light and she wore a small grin. Rei had not heard her return home that night. Obviously, the Captain could be stealthy when she wanted to be, much like how she could go from being boisterous to calm in the space of a heartbeat. It was something to remember.

"I was not lost."

Misato shook her head. "I didn't think so. Now's not the time, Rei. Go back to the living room and go to sleep." Misato tapped a finger knowingly against her nose. "I know that I've been lenient about my baby brother's curfew in the past, but like I said, now is not the time."

Rei nodded silently and went to leave. Misato stopped her at the door however, wrapping her up into a tight bear hug. Rei froze, standing stock still as Misato squeezed her tightly.

"Look, I just want you to know that he cares a lot about you. I know you care about him. We can have another party once we've won." Misato let the younger girl go and pushed her gently towards the living room. "Go to sleep. We'll talk in the morning."

Rei returned to the large futon that lay in the living room, and reluctantly crawled under the covers in her spot next to Asuka. Staring at the ceiling, she softly sighed.

Clearly, the woman knew at least some of the particulars of their date last week. This did not surprise Rei, for the woman had probably asked the security forces for a report on the night's activities. In retrospect, it was an obvious solution to filling in the gaps in her memory of that night. Rei made a mental note to talk to the MAGI sometime soon for the security tapes that most certainly existed.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Tokyo-3 was a city that did not sleep.

It is true that there were other cities, at different points in time and geographic location, that would make that claim with varying degrees of success, but in Tokyo-3 the statement was fully realized.

Most cities, even the largest and most vibrant ones that made this claim, still had a definite cycle of activity tied to the hours of daylight and darkness.

Some, most notably the 'resort' cities, the vacation destinations did a fair job of offering twenty four hours a day, but it was not, some would argue, the same thing.

Tokyo-3 offered a true twenty four hour a day life. It did not have the manic pace and qualities of the resort towns, and it's cycle of activity took no notice of something as mundane as the position of the sun in the sky. People worked at NERV, they worked in restaurants, shops and office buildings the entire day round. They went to the recreation centers and parks of the city. They went to bed, and they rose to go about their lives. When government coin was the fuel, the engine of activity never turned off.

So, the problem was not that there was nothing to do. There was much to do and much to see. The night was always young in Tokyo-3.

The problem was that neither Rei or Shinji knew what they wanted to do, and if the other person was interested in doing anything, no obvious clues were given.

Dinner had been a quiet, reserved affair. The general opinion of the Section 2 Agents that were watching from the pub down the street that it was going along a lot better than the first date. They were talking more, for one thing (even if it was just small talk, tentative verbal lines cast out to see what they could catch), and Rei wasn't anywhere near as clumsy as she had been, even though they were having wine with their appetizer instead of water. It might have been their increased familiarity with each other, or perhaps it was the illusion of privacy; or it might have been the advice that had been given to them earlier. Either way, the pair had managed to work through dinner all the way through to dessert without getting their audience drunk.

Perhaps emboldened by the two bottles of champagne that they had shared, Shinji even managed to feed Rei some of the cheesecake he had ordered without stammering or blushing too much.

Rei, who had selected an assortment of chilled fruit and molten chocolate, (molten had been the description that had won her over when the waiter had told them about their dessert options), had almost balked at the idea of hand feeding him a strawberry covered with white chocolate, but she had persevered in the end. She had to bite down on her lower lip to keep from squealing in delight as his lips closed down on her fingers though. She was extremely glad that he had closed his eyes.

They had eaten and drank their fill, but they were not ready to go home just yet.

So now they found themselves wandering down the streets of Tokyo-3, hand in hand, gathering the odd glance here and there from the other people who were out and about, for it wasn't that often that one saw a pair of high schoolers walking around at night dressed to the nines. Nobody took a second glance after seeing the men in black suits that followed behind at an unobtrusive distance.

The commercial district was awash with lights, the twenty four hour stores vying for attention and sales. They meandered down the wide streets, looking at things in the windows, each one idly wondering why people spent money on such things. Both lived a relatively spartan lifestyle, and while Rei had by far more possessions than Shinji, the majority of these were tools and devices that she had salvaged and cobbled together in order to do Science. They were not just things such as clothes or video games, furniture or perhaps even objects of 'art'. Even most of Shinji's things were originally Misato's, him having claimed right of salvage on what cooking utensils she did posses.

As they stood on a street corner waiting for the traffic lights to change, Rei leaned up against Shinji, causing him to stiffen up slightly before relaxing. Filled with a nervous energy, he looked around, trying not to fidget.

"I'm glad that it's a n-nice night out. If it was raining we wouldn't be able to walk around like this."

"Yes."

Shinji idly looked up into the sky. It was not a very romantic view, despite the fact that the night was perfectly clear, with no clouds of water vapor or man made emissions. The moon sat low in the sky, a thin sickle shaped sliver but it was a dull white and no stars were visible, Tokyo-3 turning back the darkness with millions of tiny, tamed fires, fueled by harnessed lightning.

"It's too bad that we can't see any of the constellations. I used to stargaze sometimes, I mean, before I came here."

Rei looked up from watching the traffic light to the sky in quiet contemplation.

"There is too much light pollution here for the stars to be visible to the naked eye and most telescopes."

"Yeah, it's too bright here. My teacher's home was well outside of the city, so I was able to learn the different constellations."

"Perhaps if we were to go to another location with less population buildup we would be able to observe the stars better?"

Shinji thought hard for a moment. The black suited agent had told him about opportunities like this. The ball was now in his court, just like he had said. An option had presented itself, and it was up to him to decide where to go from here.

"Um... We could go to the hills... I mean, it's not that far by car, and we can ask the security guys to drive us."

"There still will be light pollution... but I don't think there will be as much."

It was here that Section 2 showed off. The traffic light changed and the black sedan that had been following them pulled up to the curb, the sound of locks disengaging just barely audible over the sounds of the Tokyo-3 nightlife.

Shinji, remembering what he had been told earlier, opened the door for Rei, and allowed her to enter the car first before sliding in next to her. The two men in the front of the car nodded to the pilots as if they hadn't just been listening to their seemingly private conversation. It was a disquieting thought, how little privacy that they actually had, but Shinji decided to deal with it the same way that he dealt with most things that worried him; he ignored it.

The trip east up into the mountains did not take much time, as there was little traffic headed out to the middle of nowhere. This fact, coupled with the immaculately maintained roads, allowed the sedan to travel at speeds perhaps unsafe under normal conditions.

Shinji really didn't want to know why they already had a full picnic basket and blanket in the trunk of the car.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei woke up to a largely silent apartment, devoid of the usual noises of the residents eating breakfast. She sat up and yawned, noting that Asuka was already up, but the depression caused by the girl was still warm.

Rei walked into the kitchen to find the Second Child reading a note on the food refrigerator. Asuka turned her head over one shoulder, having somehow sensed the girl's silent approach.

"Misato's gone to NERV early and has taken the Third for some prep work or something. She says that we're free to do whatever we want today, so long as we do it together. She wants us to relax for tomorrow."

Rei quirked an eyebrow and plucked the note from underneath the magnet. It was done in the same sloppy handwriting as the sign on Shinji's door, and was also stained with spilled coffee. Rei also noted that Misato wanted them to turn in early in order to be ready for the early timetable of tomorrow's operation.

Asuka grumbled as she looked at the food that had been left for their breakfast. It was a pair of vegetable omelets and there was bread for toast.

"Why couldn't he have made one with meat? I mean, it's not like you would eat it accidentally. It'd be pretty obvious which one it was, because it would be bigger."

"He did not have to make anything at all. If you wish to have an omelet made to your specifications, perhaps you should make one yourself? I will take care of both omelets myself."

Asuka snorted. "I'm sure you would. But maybe you wouldn't mind a different sort of meat omelet, hmm? A little Shinji Special?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Rei pulled one of the dishes towards her and sat down at the table, and blew a errant strand of hair out from her eyes, something that she had been doing more and more over the course of the synchronization training with the redhead who sat grinning at her from across the table.

"Oh? Is there something that Wondergirl doesn't know?"

Rei ignored that as she dug into her food, deciding instead to focus on what was going to be the last such breakfast, and think on what could be made of the day.

Asuka similarly tore into her own helping of food, but had no questions about her plans.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to watch television." She waved her cup of reheated coffee towards the living room to punctuate her words. "You can run off and do whatever it is that you'd like to."

Rei looked up, still chewing a mouthful of vegetable and egg. Swallowing, she raised an eyebrow questioningly. "We are supposed to stay together. She said we had to do whatever it was together."

Asuka shot the blue haired girl a flat look. "Do you always do what you're told?"

"Yes."

Asuka rolled her eyes at the monosyllabic response, having expected it. While they had gotten along better than they had before by dint of being forced to be inseparable for more than a week, they were not friends. But they knew more of each other now, especially what buttons to push on the other person.

The problem with Rei was that sometimes it was hard to tell when one was pushing her buttons.

"Obedient little doll." Asuka, satisfied at the small twitch in Rei's left eye, drank the last of her coffee in one go. "All right then, what was it that you wanted to do today?"

The First Child looked at the last little bite of her omelet, transfixed on the tip of her fork. Carefully, almost daintily, she swiveled the fork around in her hand and deposited the morsel into her mouth. Swallowing it with a sigh, she returned her unblinking gaze to the redhead.

"I want to go shopping."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei stared at the ceiling, unable to sleep. Both Shinji and Misato had been gone all day, which she had not expected, despite there being no assurances on the note that Misato had left that they would return. A small gift bag sat next to Rei's schoolbag in the corner of the living room, awaiting delivery. She had wanted to present Shinji with it before the commencement of the mission, but it looked like it would have to wait.

Asuka mumbled something unintelligible in her sleep and rolled over. The redhead, while falling asleep almost immediately upon going to bed, was moving around a lot more tonight than previously. Rei sighed and rolled over onto her side and closed her eyes, trying to will herself to sleep.

After what seemed to be an eternity later, she opened her eyes again. The digital display on the DVD player said that only five minutes had passed. Rei sat up and looked into the kitchen, seeking the microwave's interface. It too argued with her own internal chronometer, stating that it was just past ten, in perfect agreement with the disc player. Asuka rolled over again, saying something in German.

Rei sighed again and flopped back down. Two minutes later, she stood up, and grabbing her cell phone, walked into Shinji's room, and climbed into his bed.

When her phone's alarm went off six hours later, she woke up to find that she was not alone.

Rei sat up, silencing the alarm, and looked down at the redhead that was curled up next to her in Shinji's bed.

_This is... unexpected. _Rei though, experimentally prodding the girl's shoulder with a finger. _At least she brought her own pillow. I won't have to look for any of her hair on his._

Deciding that she didn't want to see if she could move the girl back to the living room without waking her up, Rei exacted herself from the Second Child's arms and legs and crawled out of the bed. Pushing the boy's pillow up against the wall so that it was out of the way, she then grabbed the girl's shoulder and shook her.

"Mgh... Gott, what are you doing? Get off me!" Asuka snapped irritably, pulled away from Rei as she sat up.

"You did not wake when I called your name." Rei responded calmly, cocking her head at Asuka as the confused redhead looked around the room. "Why did you come in here to sleep? If you did not wish to sleep with me in the living room, why not go to your room? You did forcibly evict Ikari from it to take it for your own."

Asuka sprang out of the bed. "What- I never did!"

"You did evict him from his room."

"No, not that." Asuka snapped back. "I never came in here to sleep! This is a trick!"

Rei stared at her, and then deliberately looked at the bed, and then around at the rest of the room. "This is Ikari's room, and that is Ikari's bed."

"You must have moved me in here or something! I would never come in here on my own!"

"You weigh at least five kilos more than me. I doubt that I would be able to move you on my own without waking you up."

Asuka glared at the girl. "It's not my fault you eat like a bird! And I'm not interested in that twerp at all! Why would I come in here to sleep?"

Rei stared at the other pilot without answering. "I asked you that." She narrowed her eyes as she studied Asuka's flushed and angry face. As interesting as this was proving to be, there was no time for her to conduct further Science on the redhead, as they were expected to be on their way into headquarters before very long. She turned and left the small room without further comment.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji yawned into a cup of coffee and one end of the conference table as Misato shepherded the female pilots into the briefing room. Both girls shot him interested looks as they sat down. He was already dressed in a plug suit, and it looked like he hadn't slept much, if at all. Misato's voice tore their attention to the telescreen.

"After this mission brief concludes, Pilots Ayanami and Soryu will dress in their plug-suits and report to Evangelion cages three and four, respectively. For this mission, Pilot Ayanami will pilot Evangelion Unit-01 instead of Unit-00."

This was old news to the three pilots, as it had been decided when the pilot roster had been changed. Unit-00 just was not... flexible enough to meet the mission requirements.

"At 0700 hours, Pilot Ikari will deploy in Unit-00 and take up a Support by Fire position at fixed position 3A to the north of Tokyo-3. From there he will assist by providing ranged fire support, and if necessary, move to engage in close combat.

At 0800 hours, Units 01 and 02 will deploy to sector 6B, and will stage for the commencement of Operation Riverdance. At 0845, the operation will begin. Utilizing the timed and sequenced attack plan that they have rehearsed, both Evangelions will engage the Seventh Angel until it is destroyed. Once the target is silenced, the battle damage assessment will be held, and all Evangelions will return to the cages."

Misato looked around at the assembled pilots and bridge staff. There were no questions, as they all knew the plan inside and out. This wasn't the first time they had run through the mission brief, but this last one was a mere formality. The only change to the mission was whatever Misato had Shinji doing last night. Misato looked at her watch and then nodded.

"Alright then. Let's kill this thing."

Shinji leaned back in his chair as everyone else stood up, and drained the rest of his coffee. Misato had brought him here yesterday to stand by as emergency response in case the Angel didn't want to wait until it was completely regenerated before resuming it's attack on the city. He had slept here in headquarters, on the couch in Misato's office, but he woken up several times during the course of the night.

He yawned and stood up. He looked at Misato, who was waiting for him by the door.

"You ready for this, Shinji? Unit-00 is older and less advanced, and you won't have as fine a control over it as you do in Unit-01. It wasn't ever supposed to be used in combat."

Shinji nodded as they walked towards the cages, fiddling with the empty coffee mug. "I should be good . If everything goes right, I won't have to do anything."

Misato flashed him a reassuring grin. "It sucks to be the backup guy, doesn't it? You get all geared up and don't get to do anything."

"T-that's not what I meant!" Shinji protested, turning red.

"I know, I know. You're too easy, Shinji." Misato plucked the mug from his hands and wrapped him up in a hug. "Good luck, and if anything happens, be careful, but you'll be the last line of defense. We can't count on a missile strike to kill it, or even slow it down again."

"I know." Shinji's voice was muffled and thick with emotion. "B-but I won't need to do anything! Rei and Asuka will take care of it!"

"Yes they will." Misato squeezed him tighter before releasing him. He pulled away, but still was still standing near her when the lift opened up onto the cage. "Go on. We'll celebrate later, OK?"

"OK."

The lift doors closed, and Shinji turned to look at the blue cyclops that stood in the center of the cage, waiting. It did not wait in brooding silence like Unit-01. Standing here, looking at Rei's Evangelion, Shinji was struck by the differences between the prototype and test type, and then with the main production model.

Where there seemed to be a malevolent air about Unit-01, as if it was forever spoiling for a fight, ready to maim and kill at a moments notice, Unit-00 with it's large singular optic that dominated it's face seemed to be surprised at something. While he knew that the effect was wholly artificial, Unit-00 to Shinji seemed to be more cheerful than the purple Evangelion.

While they had done the cross synchronization training with the test bodies running as a filter for the actual Evangelions, this was the first time that he was actually going to be inside the prototype. Not for the first time this week he wondered how it would feel, synchronizing with it. He turned as he heard footsteps approaching him along the catwalk, seeing Dr. Akagi, who held a clipboard and a cup of coffee. She smiled at him and handed him the cup.

"Drink. It's better stuff than what Misato makes." She smiled at the boy as he took the cup and looked at the thick sludge inside. "It's more than just coffee. It's what I make when I work late nights."

Shinji took an experimental sip of the warm goo, and shook, his face turning white. "What's in this?"

Ritsuko tapped the side her nose. "That's a secret. Finish it up, now. The MK 23 Mod 5 is already at the site. You've practiced with it in the sims, but keep in mind that it's a very basic, very limited weapon. It is not a precision weapon. It shoots, and it shoots fast. Don't expect much else from it."

Shinji nodded as he choked down the noxious brew. This too had been drilled into him over the course of the training and practice. But the final preparations were always thus; full of reminders of things that they already knew. It was a sort of ritual, a good luck charm like throwing salt over one's shoulder.

"Maya will be keeping an extra eye on your synch ratio during the battle, even if you're not called to fight today. Finished? Good, give me that then," she said as she took the cup back, "and go ahead and mount up."

"Yes, Dr. Akagi."

Shinji climbed up into the waiting Entry Plug. Even this was different than Unit-01, the forward end of the plug shaped differently. What all this entailed, he did not know, but he suspected that if he asked Asuka she would know. Whether she would tell him in a civil manner was another issue entirely.

He closed his eyes as the plug filled with LCL, for while he was used to the unpleasant sensation of breathing the liquid, he hated watching it fill up the enclosed cockpit. He didn't open them again until he felt the buzzing sensation of the ionization, and when he did, he grinned at the sense of vertigo and the expansion of his senses. There was a buzzing at the base of his skull that was new, but other than that it was not much unlike synchronizing with Unit-01. On the plus side, it smelled like Rei.

Hundreds of meters and several reinforced wall away in the girl's locker room, Rei looked up as the PA system activated. "All sections, switch to Stage 2 Alert. Unit-00 has been deployed."

Asuka looked over from her locker, where she was changing into her plug-suit. "Nervous, Wondergirl?"

Rei resumed changing without answering. She had reason to worry about the recalcitrant spirit of Unit-00, but it was not something that she wished to discuss with anyone, let alone the Second Child. But he had deployed, it meant that all was well for now, so she put it out of her mind. She had to focus on the upcoming battle.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka grinned as she watched the still form of the Angel. It stood there in the crater, waiting, unmoving. _Like a lamb to the slaughter_. She thought to herself, rolling her shoulders, and in turn her Evangelion's. She bent down and deftly picked the large progressive knife up from the back of the trailer truck. With a thought, she activated the comm system.

"Unit-02 is ready."

Over the comm system the others responded in sequence.

"Unit-01 is ready."

"Unit-00 is ready."

Misato's voice crackled into life. "Operation Riverdance is a go. Units 01 and 02, engage."

Music flooded the Entry Plugs of the red and purple Evangelions as the giants exploded into action. Acting as one, they tore out to face the Angel. Meter after meter of umbilical cable spooled out after them, the power tethers trailing like snakes, the thick cables bouncing back and forth as the war machines thundered towards their foe.

These cables, the givers of the life sustaining power to mankind's mightiest weapons, made it so that anyone fighting alongside them do so from quite a distance away. The cables were a thick as a man was tall, and should they run into even the largest of any of the main battle tanks in existence, it would smash them into unrecognizable lumps of metal. The construction codes for Tokyo-3 allowed for more robust buildings than in other cities. The best supporting units for Evangelions were other Evangelions.

The warning light came on, letting the pilots know that they were running out of cable. As one, they ejected the cable plugs, right on cue with the thunderous brass section's playing. The five minute internal power timer switched on as they leapt and cleared the the crater's edge.

Feet pounding in time to the beat of the drums, great gouts of earth were thrown up behind in the wake of the cyborgs, but still Israfel did not move, nor did it even seem to acknowledge the approaching enemy. The MAGI reported that it's AT. Field remained constant, with no change. But just as the girls unfolded their own fields, the Angel shuddered and split into the Alpha and Beta twins, and danced just out of reach of the vibrating knives that swung towards them.

Battle was joined now, each Evangelion and Angel moving in a deadly pirouette. Limbs lashed out at each other, and the yellow hexagons of clashing AT Fields flashed in and out of view. But where Alpha and Beta merged back into one being when they took too much of a pounding, no matter where Israfel went there was an Evangelion there hunting it.

Asuka and Rei hounded the Angel across the battlefield as the soundtrack to the fight grew to a crescendo. They were poetry in deadly motion, the pair of combat dancers. Time almost out, twin fists landed telling blows on the cores of Alpha and Beta, sending them back to each other. Israfel screeched, the first sound that it had made since it's detection, and was tripped up and sent flying by two cybernetically enhanced legs kicking up at it's head. Even as it landed on it's back, the Evangelions leapt up high into the air, side by side, feet the size of armored personnel carriers aiming for the glowing red core. The Angel was trapped, with nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, and no time to split up again.

The music ended just as the core was crushed, the girls smashing through the hastily erected AT Field with ease. There was silence for a second as the Entry Plugs went dark and the lights in the eyes of the Evangelions faded, and then a column of fire erupted.

Misato swore as the powerless Evangelions were sent flying. She turned to call Shinji, but he was already on the move, running down from his post in the mountains towards his fellow pilots, tracking them as they fell with all the grace of a pair of rag-dolls through the sky.

Asuka hit first, landing just outside the city proper, in the rolling hills that fed into the mountains that ringed the fortress city. Rei landed right after her, and right on top of her.

Shinji shook his head as he arrived at the impact site. Despite the indignity of the how they landed, they both looked to be intact and relatively undamaged. There were no obvious breaks in any of the limbs, and the plugs were well armored, and the LCL was there to act as a buffer and shock absorber, after all. Hauling Unit-01 up into a fireman's carry, he carried the limp form to the nearest catapult lift. Laying the purple giant down on it's belly, he grabbed the waiting power cable and plugged it into the socket that sat in the upper back of the cyborg. Unit-01 shuddered slightly as power flooded it's systems, returning it to life.

"Rei? Are you alright?" Maya asked as the MAGI reported Unit-01's communication's suite being activated.

"Yes. I am uninjured."

A cheer went up from the bridge crew and Shinji, who was moving back towards Unit-02. Repeating the same process, he delivered the red Evangelion to another lift, and breathed a sigh of relief as Asuka's grumbling voice came over the net.

That sigh of relief was followed by an exasperated sigh and a series of defensive protests as she began to complain about being recovered last, and accusing him of favoritism.

He decided to just mute her channel as he locked himself into the his lift, and relaxed back against the seat of the Entry Plug as the cityscape of his father's city vanished as he returned to the subterranean base.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

A train with hundreds of passengers is traveling along in an endless loop in an underground tunnel. Every passenger save for three is asleep, and each passenger sleeps in their own train car.

The soul of Evangelion Unit-02, the soul that was and is Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu looked up at Unit-00 as it entered her train car.

_**What do you want, child?**_

_**Shinji Ikari. He was in you, for the fight against the Angel Gaghiel. He synched with you.**_ Unit-00 was curt and to the point, it's 'voice' serious and focused.

If Unit-02 had possessed eyebrows, one of them would have been raised. _**Yes, and so what? He was in you for today's fight.**_

_**Did you look into him?**_

Curiosity aroused, the red Evangelion shook it's head, and motioned to the bank of seats opposite it. _**No, I didn't. He served as a useful shield for my daughter, but I wasn't that interested in him. Why?**_

_**We need to talk to Unit-01. There is something seriously wrong with that boy.**_

_Author's Notes:_

_And with this chapter, we're caught up with the Halloween Special! At this point, I'm not planning on a Christmas only chapter, but will tie in it's events with the regular progression of the story, but never fear! There will present! There will be a Christmas tree! There will be mistletoe!_


	24. Halloween!

Quick Note: This Intermission does not chronologically take place immediately after Chapter 20. The events depicted herein occur a few chapters into the future. However, due to the inconsiderate placement of Halloween on the Gregorian Calender, Rei has graciously allowed me to borrow her Temporal Plot Derived Displacement Mechanism to bring this depiction of future events to you today. Upon the arrival of the logical resting place due to the natural progression of time, this chapter will be relocated. As always, I own nothing, and my thanks to Squire of Gothos for his services in proof reading.

Gendo Ikari looked up from the report he was reading, detailing Ritsuko's latest test findings on ADAM. So far everything that had been reported by his spies inside the Berlin complex had checked out; meaning that soon he could progress to the next stage in the scenario. His second in command and long time co-conspirator grinned at him from the door. Gendo sighed, taking his glasses off and rubbing the bridge of his nose. One would think that the extremely distinguished doctor of meta-biology and human physiology, to say nothing of his unofficial expertise in numerous other fields would have more decorum at his age, but the graying sub-commander seemed to take an almost perverse pleasure in the various social revelry that Gendo eschewed.

Take tonight, for instance. Captain Katsuragi, in one of her numerous attempts to lighten the sense of doom and gloom that somehow seemed to permeate NERV had once again invited her chain of command to a party held at her apartment building. Once again, Kozo was intent on joining in the drunken revelry, while Gendo would remain in his office, which was crypt like enough without the need of additional decorations.

This party was sure to out do the last in terms of size and insanity. Misato had seen how quickly the first had spread from her apartment to encompass the entirety of the NERV employee populated building, and had planned this one accordingly. All of the inhabitants of the apartment building were on board with the party, and were going to open their doors. In fact, the whole city block had been filled with carnival type stands, all tying into the Halloween theme. A huge bonfire had been prepared, in hopes of derailing any acts of arson before they were perpetuated. They would see how well this would work the next day. Gendo had no expectations of it working, and had already ordered Section 2 to ensure easy access for the fire response teams.

Kozo, dressed like one of the stereotypical Eastern European vampires, looked resplendent in the aristocratic getup. His hair had been slicked back and combed into an impressive widow's peak, and the high collared cape framed his angular face nicely. The cape, like the rest of the clothing, was no mere costume made from cotton and polyester. No, the cape was a heavy silk cape, the obsidian folds drinking in the light and shimmering unnaturally at the same time. His white satin shirt seemed almost too bright under the vest of fine black wool, matched by his pants, in the same midnight hue. A pair of pointed shoes, polished until they reflected like pools of black water kissed by moonlight adorned his feet, but how comfortable they would be remained to be seen. Topping off the outfit was a heavy and ornate looking medallion of gold and ruby, worn around his neck on a ribbon of red silk. Two fangs were clearly visible in his mouth as he grinned and spoke.

"I see that you're going to be sitting this one out as well."

"Yes."

"The world won't end while you're not looking. You should take some time off and enjoy yourself." He paused, watching as Gendo rolled his eyes. "I'm not saying that you should just drop everything and fly off to an island somewhere for a few weeks, but going to a Halloween party won't kill you. Besides, it'll be good for morale. Let you connect with the others."

"Somehow I don't think that my presence will be a morale boosting event for them."

"I'm not so concerned with them as I am about you. How long has it been since you've even chatted with Rei? You even skipped going to see Yui this month. And it's been a while since you and Dr. Akagi-"

"I am quite aware how long it has been since I've last seen Dr. Akagi. You do not need to comment on it."

Kozo smiled, having finally gotten a real emotional response other than dry sarcasm from the Commander. Even if it was irritation, it was a starting point.

"My, my, a little testy are we?"

Putting his glasses back on, Gendo glared at the insolent Sub-commander. "Just go to the stupid party, and can you please try to reign in the arson this time?"

Grinning again, and moving surprisingly fluidly for a man in his early sixties, bowed deeply, effortlessly manipulating the cape as it pooled around him. Affecting a 'vampirical' accent, he spoke slowly as he rose from the bow. "I vill see vhat I can do, Commander."

Groaning at the theatrics, Gendo returned to the report. "Just see that you do."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato stared critically at her reflection in her mirror. While she didn't really care about winning the costume contest, she just had to beat Ritsuko. Her friend had been so smugly secretive about her costume, only offering cryptic hints about it. It didn't help that that idiot Kaji had been hanging around her office dropping other hints about the blond scientist. She scowled, turning one way and then the next, inspecting her shapely figure from all angles. She looked good, but then, she always looked good.

The costume was a classic one, Misato being of the mindset that the classics were classics for a reason; being that they were hits with everyone. The french maid's uniform was heavily stylized, and while Misato doubted it's usefulness to an actual maid, what with the deep neckline and high hemline, the black uniform left just enough to the imagination. There were going to be children present, after all.

She ran a hand over the lacy trim, wondering if she should have gone for the ruffled version instead. To be sure, the lacy version was definitely more... seductive looking... but the ruffles on the other uniform had positively dripped with cuteness. Putting her hands on her hips, thrusting them out to one side and tilting her head, she smiled.

_No, the lacy version was the one to go with. Definitely. _

Setting the small hat on her head at a jaunty angle, she skipped out of her room, shivers of excitement and anticipation running down her spine as she grinned.

_There's no way that Rits is going to beat me at the costume contest. No way at all. _

She glanced around the living room, from the tables laden with food and drink, to the karaoke machine already set up in the corner by the television and sound system that had shown up along with Asuka's belongings to replace her own modest one.

_Great! Everything is perfect. Soon, NERV Operation Spooky Fun Time will commence, and everyone, Shinji included, will have a good time!_

Grinning, her eyes brightened as her gaze once again fell upon the punch bowl, filled nearly to the brim with a cheerful looking orange liquid. Like before, the plan was to spike the punch after the younger girls had been taken to one of the Section 2 rooms for the night. Of course, Kodama had told Misato ahead of time that Hikari was going to be on the lookout for such suspicious and irresponsible activity on their parts. Therefore, the devious pair of pranksters had enlisted the aide of an unlikely candidate: Lieutenant Maya Ibuki.

The three had met for tea one afternoon when Misato had started planning the party, and while it had taken a while to get the usually strait-laced young woman to see things their way, she had agreed that the pictures of the sloshed teenagers from the first party had been amusing, and in a few cases, adorable. So, for the sake of improving the camaraderie of the pilot corps (which always seemed rocky at best), she would pour a modest amount of alcohol into the fruity drink. Misato knew that the overly responsible Hikari would never suspect Maya, the quiet bridge technician of nefarious activities.

The doorbell rang suddenly, pulling the raven-haired woman out of her reverie. Hurrying to the door, she smoothed out the white apron that hung over the racy mini-skirt, and threw open the door with a wide smile.

"Hello! Ah, how are you Kodama?" Misato pleasantly asked the eldest of the Horaki sisters. The girls were all there, with Kodama wearing a witch's outfit and a knowing smirk. Nozomi, dressed like some overly cute creature from one game or another, darted in, as full of energy as only a young child looking forwards to a night full of candy and fun can be. Hikari was dressed in a somewhat risque (for her) costume, consisting of a yellow skirt that ended at mid thigh (only a few inches longer than Misato's) and a tightly hugging white blouse with a neckline far deeper than anything she had ever worn before. A pair of small fluffy wings was built into the back of the shirt, and she wore a wig of long silvery hair that seemed to almost float through the air. In one hand she carried a large bag; obviously containing spare clothing for her, and possibly her younger sister.

"My, that is a fetching look for you Hikari!" Misato said, eying the young woman, who blushed heavily as she stepped inside. "You'll do well in the costume contest!"

Hikari shook her head emphatically. "No, I'm not entering in the contest." She hefted the bag after placing her shoes by the door. "Is Asuka still getting ready?" she asked, looking around the decorated (and rearranged) apartment with a critical eye on Nozomi who was engaged in chasing Pen-Pen around the large empty space in the center of the living room.

"Yes, she's still in her room. We'll keep an eye on Nozomi, so go on ahead."

Hikari narrowed her eyes at the pair. "I'll be keeping my eye on that punch bowl, Kodama."

Both older women laughed as Hikari marched off down the hall to the fiery redhead's room. She tried to ignore their laughter, and resolved to keep a strict watch on them and the punch bowl. She knew that Asuka would be no help at all in this matter, the girl not understanding her stance on underage drinking at all. They did things very differently in Germany, it seemed.

"Asuka?" Hikari called for the girl as she knocked on the girl's door, still slightly cringing inside as she recalled that this used to be Shinji's room. She had never heard him complain about his eviction to the much smaller room, and both Toji and Kensuke hadn't ever mentioned him having a problem about it, but it still didn't seem right. "Asuka, it's Hikari. Can I come in?"

"Yeah, come on in, but close the door quick." Asuka's muffled voice came through the door, sounding like she had something in her mouth as she talked. Sliding the door open, Hikari saw her friend sitting at her desk, wearing a robe with a towel wrapped around her head. Shutting the door again behind her, she set the bag down against the wall before sitting down carefully on the girl's bed.

"So what's your big secret costume?"

Asuka popped her lips a few times, bending closer to the mirror in front of her before answering. "It's part of my master plan to get Kaji to forget about Misato!" she said, a grin on her face as she spun around to face the magical girl costumed Hikari. "And I've got a secret weapon as well." She winked, and held up a glass vial, partially filled with a clear liquid. "Lavender perfume. Weapons grade material by itself normally, but I've done some additional tweaking to it. This makes Misato's stuff smell like old dishwater."

Hikari eyed the jar with interest. "Really? What did you do to it?" She knew that Asuka was very skilled in chemistry, and that even the more outrageous statements about her scientific aptitude and abilities were not really idle boasts.

Asuka's expression grew sly. "Oh, a little of this, a smidge of that... Let's just say that once he gets a whiff of this, he'll forget all about Misato." She clasped the vial to her chest, spinning around in a display of actual happiness. As she spun, the towel wrapped around her head fell off suddenly, sending her long locks of hair, still damp, flying out in a fan behind her. Hikari's eyes opened wide as her jaw dropped, clearly in shock.

"Asuka! Your hair!"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Toji and Kensuke nodded to each other, each eying the other boy's costume. Toji was wearing a suit similar to one of the popular race car drivers, his jumpsuit made of white leather, but devoid of the endorsement logos plastered all over the regular driver's uniforms, to include their helmets (Toji's was pure white), which obscured his features behind a lens of smoked glass while many of theirs had clear visors. In fact, the only reason Kensuke knew it was Toji was because of the presence of his sister, Mari.

The younger girl was wearing one of the mass produced costumes of the pilots, in her case, one of Asuka. While Toji had reservations about her emulating the pilots (for reasons that he could not explain to the younger girl why he had initially refused to buy her the costume, such as the horrible trauma Shinji suffered before his eyes), he had to admit that she looked cute in it. But, while he might be prejudiced in that matter, everyone they had run across on their way to the apartment had commented on her.

Toji however, was at a loss to explain Kensuke's outfit. While the tuxedo was supposed to look elegant and dashing, the bespectacled boy looked a little uncomfortable in it. While it was generally agreed upon by the girls in their class that he was vaguely dorky looking (and acting), it was not helped at all by his choice of costume. Cocking his helmeted head to one side, Toji gave up trying to figure it out.

"So... You're going as a waiter?"

Kensuke glared at his friend even as Mari burst into laughter. "No! I'm James Bond."

"Who?"

Rolling his eyes, Kensuke shook his head. "Only the most famous spy in history."

"C'mon, man, you totally look like a waiter."

Giving up on explaining it to his friend, Kensuke sighed. "Whatever. Let's just get to the party already."

Mari bounced up and down excitedly. "Nozomi and Hikari and Kodama are all there!" She started skipping around in a circle around the pair, her limp just barely noticeable if you had known her before the accident. "And Mr. Shinji and Miss Rei and Miss Asuka will be there!" she continued to chant in her sing song voice, counting off names on her hands. She had originally wanted a Rei costume, the shy blue haired girl being the first girl pilot (as enamored of Shinji as she was, the idea of girls dressing like boys and vise versa was icky, and thus had passed on a costume of the Third Child), but all of the ones in her size had been sold. While she liked 'Miss' Asuka well enough, "Miss' Rei had a special place in her heart.

The apartment door was open already, in preparation of the many visitors and guests that were expected. There was no real worry about questionable people showing up, as Section 2 were checking people at the building entrances, and to a lesser extent screening people entering the 'carnival' area. Mari caught sight of Nozomi, and quickly joined her in the main room in front of the television. Kodama, hearing their shouted greetings, poked her head out of the kitchen, smiling at her sister's boyfriend.

"Hey Toji, Kensuke. Hikari's with Asuka right now." She appraised their outfits, shaking her head slightly at the jock's, but raised a questioning eyebrow at his geeky friend. "Um... so you're dressed up as a butler?"

Grumbling under his breath, Kensuke shook his head. "No, I'm a spy." He pulled a smug face, and in a deadpan voice, he introduced his costume's namesake. "The name's Bond. James Bond."

Obviously still not getting the reference, the older girl just shrugged. "Well, Shinji hasn't poked his head out of his room yet, so you might want to go see if he's done getting ready."

Sighing theatrically, Kensuke left for Shinji's room without further comment while Toji nodded to Kodama. Kensuke knocked on Shinji's door, calling to his friend.

"Hey Shin-man, it's us. Can we come in?"

The only response that came was the door sliding open slightly, showing the dim room beyond. Kensuke pushed the door the rest of the way open and the pair entered the small room, Toji sliding shut the door behind him. The room was about a third the size of his old one, and with the three boys it seemed somewhat cramped. Toji knew that Shinji preferred the door to be shut however, serving as a barrier between him and the energetic (and somewhat intrusive) females he roomed with. Despite the fact that the party was nearing, Shinji was still clad in his usual attire when he was at home, a pair of black shorts and the blue t shirt that had been a gift from Rei. The room's small window was open for ventilation, but it didn't do much to remove the smell of gun oil from the enclosed space. His 9mm pistol lay disassembled on the desk, next to the lock box it normally stayed in when at the apartment.

"Dude, where's your costume? The party's gonna start, in like an hour, man." Toji stated, sitting on the narrow bed. He pulled his helmet off, setting it down on the floor. "What are you even going as? You never did say."

Shinji shook his head as he wiped down one of the pieces that glistened in the dim light. "I'm not dressing up. I don't really feel like partying anyways." He shot a glance at Kensuke, who was fiddling with his bow tie. "Umm... I get what Toji's supposed to be, but what are you? An undertaker?"

"Oh come on! Undertakers don't even wear tuxedos!" Kensuke cried, slamming his head into his open hands. "Is it really that no-one's ever seen a Bond flick?"

"A what?"

Toji shook his head. "Don't ask. It's some spy thing. But seriously, you're not dressing up? It's freaking Halloween man! You gotta dress up! It's tradition!"

"A dumb tradition..." Shinji muttered under his breath, not really caring if they heard him.

Toji sighed, shaking his head again. It was apparent to him that he needed to get the Shinji train on the track to party town. Otherwise, certain female parties would be sure to be wanting to have words with him and Kensuke. Sharp, pointed, and very uncomfortable words. He didn't understand why it the task of getting his shy and reserved friend involved always fell to him, especially as the most strident of the females actually lived with him. He didn't begrudge Shinji this, however, knowing that the boy would neither mean, know about, nor even understand the fuss that he generated.

"Look, I wasn't going to say anything, because Hikari told me not to, but she and Rei spent, I don't know, like the past two weeks working on costumes. They're coming in as some magical girl twins from some comic they like."

He made sure that he had Shinji's attention before continuing. "Now, if even Rei is dressing up for this party, don't you think that you should too? I mean, even if it's something lame like Ken's waiter get up, you gotta dress up. Besides," he said conspiratorially, throwing an arm around the smaller boy's shoulders the other making waving motions as if pointing off into the distance (or future), "If I remember what Hikari was telling me, the Rei's character's supposed to be all interested in some guy who goes around in a fancy suit..."

A thoughtful look passed over Shinji's features before he shook his head and continued to wipe down the pistol, slipping away from Toji. "Even if the character she's cosplaying's all interested in looks like Ken, it doesn't mean that she's gonna be interested in someone dressed like him. Besides, dressing in costume for a party doesn't sound like something Rei would do."

Toji grinned, having been waiting for exactly this argument, and having just the thing to counter it. "According to Mari, Rei was asking Hikari what the standard social norms were for a Halloween party."

Shinji stopped halfway through assembling his pistol, staring at the wall for a minute, before his eyes drifted down to the small framed picture of a nervous looking boy and a calm looking girl in 'fancy' dress standing in the apartment's living room, Misato having insisted on getting photographic proof of both pilots wearing something other than school uniforms and plug-suits before letting them leave for their second 'dinner date'.

"Well, that does sound like Rei..."

Meanwhile, Kensuke was grumbling under his breath about people with duplicate costumes and unoriginality. "I put a lot of thought into what I wanted to be... And where is he going to get a fancy suit all in a hurry? That's what I'd like to know..." Neither of the other boys made any sign of noticing or even caring.

Shinji grinned, the expression out of place on him, but his friends didn't argue as he finished putting the pistol back together and running through the functions check, his hands and fingers flying through the process with practiced ease before locking it away and shooing them from his room. Somewhat dumbfounded as to the enthusiasm of the sudden burst of activity from the normally sedate boy, Toji and Kensuke moved back towards the living room.

"How come you never told me that Rei was dressing up as Hikari's twin?" Kensuke was still grumpy at the prospect of having a duplicate costume. He did take solace in the fact that he was actually in a tuxedo, while the best Shinji would be able to do was a black three piece affair. Somewhat stylish, yes, but from the only pictures they had seen (both Misato and Asuka had taken pictures, Misato because she thought it was cute, Asuka to tease) he looked more ill at ease in it that Kensuke did in his.

Toji's grin became a forced, sickly looking affair as he made hushing motions with his hands as he looked around for his girlfriend. "I seriously have no idea if that girl's dressing up or not. I know that she had asked Hikari about the point of dressing up, but that's it. Besides, the character Hikari's here as has no twins as far as I know." He was not about to reveal to his friend that he knew perfectly well that Hikari's character (The Spirit) had no twins, or that he had watched the entire series with her over a few nights, cuddled under a blanket at his house, safely away from their teasing sisters. (Mari had been with Kodama and Nozomi when the two of them had been out 'eating dinner and seeing a movie')

Kensuke looked agog at his friend, who merely rolled his eyes at him.

"Look, if Shinji doesn't dress up, or even come out of his room for this party, Misato's gonna blame us, and Hikari's gonna blame us. They'll be bugging us to get him into the spirit of things anyways, so it's better if we take care of it now. Rei's sure to at least show up, because I know that Misato will order her here to have fun. I wasn't lying about her having asked Hikari about the 'social norms'. Even if she doesn't show, if anything can be counted on to get a response from him, it's Rei."

Kensuke could only stare in slack jawed wonder at the boy who had once again shown that he was nowhere as dumb or insensitive as he might appear at first. To be true, despite what Asuka had to say about some of Hikari's reasons for liking the jock, he did have a sensitive side. How he used that side and the insight it sometimes gave him when he listened to it was up in the air for discussion, but it was there nonetheless. "Alright then, mister manipulative, how do we ensure that Rei's dressing up?"

"Why is it important that Rei dresses up?" Toji responded, almost too casually when comparing it to the importance he had impressed upon Shinji, and in his explanation to Kensuke.

Kensuke almost fell over onto his face when Toji threw that verbal left hook at him. "Why is it important? Why is it so damn important that Shinji dress up then?"

"Because I know that we can get him to at least throw on that suit he wore before. He could be one of any dozen generic shoujo comic love interests. Throw a pair of sunglasses on him, and he's a second rate Section 2 look alike. Whatever it is that he looks like, it gets him involved more with the party."

"Well, what about Rei?"

"Her showing up is involvement enough. I've got no leverage against her like we do with Shinji. Besides, I don't think that too many people outside our small group would be ready for an interactive Rei. I just hope that she and Asuka don't get into it tonight..."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei carefully regarded the results of her latest experiment. It seemed so far to be a huge success, but it was much to early to tell. She needed external verification and validation for this, but unfortunately, the only peer review group that she had (and the only member of that peer group who's reaction and opinion she really cared about) would also be the subjects of the experiment's creation. This was of course, very sloppy Science.

_If only it had occurred to me earlier that I could have tested the results on my Section 2 escorts... It would not be perfect, nor, strictly speaking are they solid members of my peer group, but it would have been something. But it is much too late to run tests against them. If I am to arrive at the optimum time as prescribe by Major Katsuragi, I will need to begin my final cleaning cycle in a few moments and then dress myself in order to depart in accordance with the time-line._

She shot a final glance at the finished product, feeling her cheeks warm in anticipation of showing it off to Shinji.

_I have no doubts that he will be impressed. Everything went according to the design schematics and blueprints. I need not doubt the rigorousness of my Science. _

Crimson eyes narrowed as she moved through her apartment, taking care now to deposit her shed clothing into the clothes hamper that now adorned one corner of her room rather than leaving a trail of discarded garments behind her.

_Not even Pilot Soryu will be able to stand in the face of my creation. Even she shall fall before the masterpiece that I have created._

As she stepped forth from the shower, she regarded her dripping form in the bathroom's mirror, staring into the reflection of her eyes, concentrating as she always did now, trying to focus on the obsidian pools surrounded by blood-red. It only took a few moments out of her time-line, and it was a necessary deviation from the night's planned activities.

After a few minutes without any noticeable response from her reflection, she quickly grabbed her towel and moved back to the singular room that made up the vast majority of her assigned living space. She regarded the heavily modified plug-suit and accompanying clothing and accoutrements as she methodically dried herself off.

When Captain Katsuragi had invited her to the party, she had told Rei that she should find a costume to wear. Rei, uncertain as to what she had meant had merely nodded and left. Further research had explained the some of the history behind the seasonal holiday, and had provided several examples of 'traditional' costumes. What she had not been able to find out was the basis for selecting one costume over another. Rei had not been sure if there were specific reasons why one would select a pirate costume, or why one would elect to go as one of the miscellaneous types of undead. Furthermore, there was the issue of the complexity of the costume, which apparently could range from very basic to horrendously complex.

So when she had observed Hikari discussing the particulars of the costume that she was planning on creating for the party, she had once again turned to the trust-worthy Class Representative for advice and guidance.

The brunette had informed her friend that there weren't any real reasons past what appealed to the person, unless they were part of a group who were dressing to a particular theme. Hikari had suggested that Rei dress up as a character or archetype (Hikari hadn't used that word, of course) that interested her. The complexity was all up to the person putting the costume together, basically boiling down to how much work they wanted to do or how much money they wanted to spend.

Once the particulars had been explained, Rei knew exactly what she would be dressed as. No base archetype for her; no pirate or ninja or zombie or robot for would be sufficient for her. No, for Rei there was only one thing that would suffice, and that was nothing less than the anthropomorphic representation of Science.

Of course, just because she knew what she was going to be going as didn't mean that she knew what the costume was going to look like. She had her work cut out for her, trying to decide how to best depict the all encompassing label of Science in a costume that would not only make it clear what she was, but was also ascetically pleasing (to her sensibilities, at any rate).

In the end it had been quite the agonizing process for the girl, but the end product was very satisfactory.

She smile slightly as she dressed, and before she collected her creation, she studied her reflection in the hall mirror with a critical eye, checking for deficiencies. She found none, of course, having practiced the donning and wearing of the costume several times since the final stages of assembly. She had experiments to run tonight, and she was not about to be hampered by a faulty costume.

Carefully packing the creation into it's travel system, designed to maintain a specific thermal equilibrium and protect against shock and impacts, she left her apartment and headed for the security car that would take her to the party.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

The party was already in full swing by the time that Rei arrived, just as she had calculated. The wedge of black suited men with serious frowns cut a path through the revelers in the carnival section to the apartment where the maid suited mastermind lived with her two charges. Rei slipped through the door, leaving the uniformed men to their own devices, who promptly made their way to the designated safe room.

She froze as a miniature version of the second most interesting test subject barreled into her, latching onto her legs in a hug. Rei smiled tentatively down at Mari, even as the young girl gushed hyper greetings. That mission accomplished, Mari released her hold on the pilot and careened off in a new direction, intent on some new activity.

A hearty and raucous laugh could be heard from the kitchen area, cutting through the noise of the party and letting Rei know where her purple-haired commander was. Carefully holding the transport container in front of her with both hands, Rei stopped just inside the kitchen's entryway, blinking at the sight of two Misatos, one smaller than the other, the larger (and normal sized) one dressed in the manner of a domestic servant with a rather lax set of uniform standards and the other (smaller) in the Operations Director's normal attire.

Both were waving beer cans around in the air in a similar manner to the other, the shorter shouting out things in a parody of the larger. When the focus of attention shifted from her to Rei (standing behind her), Misato's clone spun around to see what the rest of the room as looking at in dumbfounded and open-mouthed shock, revealing her to be Asuka.

Misato, as often was the case when confronted by something strange, found her voice first. She plopped her beer down on the table and tilted her head to the left as she put to voice what was being thought by all present.

"That's very... interesting, Rei. Very... different. What are you?"

Rei ignored the question, as she often did queries to herself, but instead lifted the transport container higher. "I have brought something for the party. Where should I place it?"

"What? Wondergirl brought something for a party?" Asuka asked, before silently cursing to herself, having forgotten her (new) policy of not speaking to the albino in hopes of forcing the girl to ignore her.

Rei, for her part, noticed but did not seize upon the opportunity the pilot gave her, opting to conserve her special brand of 'humor' for later. It was a very special tool to use in her experiments with the girl, and like an antibacterial medicine, if used too often, the bacteria in question could develop an immunity. Instead, she looked around the kitchen for an optimum location from which to display her creation. Rei found such a spot on the counter, where a plate sat, now holding only crumbs from the pile of cookies that had originally sat stacked upon it.

Aware that all eyes were on her, she moved to the counter, not quite walking, but not quite prancing either. It was an odd sort of locomotion, which caused things that most people forgot that she even had to move in interesting ways and caused the brains of all present to freeze up momentarily and to summon up a strange warmth in their souls. Some managed to shoot edgeways glances at the others, a faint red tinge on their faces that might have been caused by alcohol, but then again, might not have been.

Placing the box down on top of the plate, Rei turned around, noting with distinct pleasure the results of her careful experimentation, but also noted a distinct lack of her favorite test subject.

"Is Ikari here?"

Asuka rolled her eyes at the question that she had just known would be forthcoming from the blue haired annoyance, the boring boy being one of the only things the boring girl seemed to care about. Despite all assurances from Hikari, her friend's stooge boyfriend and plenty of others, she still had doubts that the pair hadn't been engaged in sinful and perverted activities before her arrival on the scene. Certainly, the way that they seemed to almost dote upon the other at times didn't raise any flags with anyone at NERV. They all thought that it was **cute**. Of course, at other times they were both so awkward it made her teeth hurt.

It had completely escaped her attention that many of the same things could be applied to her own pursuit of a certain unshaven spy. Likewise, so did the fact that in all reality the two pilots had a better chance with each other than she did with her prey.

Before she could open her mouth to deliver a scathing comment (forgetting again her 'policy' of silence), Hikari nudged her helmeted boyfriend in the ribs with an elbow. Underneath the cover of his darkened visor he winced, but otherwise made no sign of discomfort as he stood.

"I'll be checking on him then. Be right back." On his way out, he grabbed Kensuke by the arm, dragging him out into the hallway.

Rei locked her arms behind her, one hand grasping the other arm at her elbow, and stood there in front of the box, silently inspecting the assembled persons. As before, the primary bridge crew was present, as were the Horaki sisters, Mari Suzahara, Captain Katsuragi, Dr. Akagi (who was not taking part in the tradition of going in costume), and a few other technicians, and two men who she knew belonged to the Section 2 department. Pilot Soryu was of course present, as well as a few of the clique of girls that the forceful girl had carved out for herself. One or two other boys from their class were also present, and the wore (accompanied by the girls who were less familiar with Rei) looks of incredulous disbelief.

All (with the exception of Dr. Akagi) were in costume, most appearing to be store bought affairs, while some showed signs of being home made, or at least improved with self constructed pieces. Her own costume by far was the most extravagant and complex, having been the product of over a month of careful work.

With the exception of Captain Katsuragi, Rei's costume was the most revealing, and all agreed was the most visually striking. The problem was, while everyone could figure out what each other was dressed as (even if nobody thought of spy or James Bond when considering Kensuke), nobody was sure where to even begin to try and figure out who (or what) Rei was. Even when dressing up in costume, it seemed that the pale girl with blue hair and red was set on defying explanation.

Her costume was a multilayer affair, one that incorporated one of her plug-suits (acquired from storage), a small white boy's school uniform shirt (acquired from Shinji's closet), a white pleated skirt with black trim and a black tie (both purchased for this night). In her hair sat a pair of A10 connecters, although they were now unrecognizable as such, having been heavily modified. Unseen by the assembled group, a pair of black safety boots sat at the entrance to the apartment.

The arms and legs of the plug-suit had been removed as to create a very tight-fitting sleeveless one-piece swimsuit with legs that terminated at mid thigh. Over this she wore the almost as tight fitting white collared shirt, now similarly sleeveless, and the skirt, which ended just above her knees. The black tie, done up in a Double Windsor knot, was loosely tucked underneath her collar, matching the black trim of the skirt and the tall black socks. Billowy faux arm-warmers, fashioned from the detached sleeves of the shirt sat snugly on her upper arms, showing off her shoulders, flaring out at the wrists. The modified A10 connecters, placed carefully into her hair, the small, streamlined shapes now molded into holding two orbs on each connecter, a different colored LED emplaced in the center of each sphere.

Extrapolating from the looks on their faces, Rei was quite confidant that her costume would have a satisfactory effect on Shinji, one being that he would be extremely pliant and positively responsive to suggestions and offers of close physical proximity and even possibly to kissing. It had not escaped Rei's (or Shinji's, for that matter) notice that they had engaged in (sometimes accidentally, sometimes not, and almost always in strange, round-about ways) what was commonly called cuddling and on occasion heavy petting while having completely skipped over any kissing. (Neither of them knew if they had kissed at all during the alcohol induced haze of the last party, and while Shinji would never ask Rei about it, Rei had decided to not count any event that she could not remember, and so didn't think on it anymore, being content with knowing that sleeping next to Ikari was **most **comfortable) She was quite looking forwards to the field research that this night promised.

Even if she wouldn't remember it the next day, due to over-ingestion of alcoholic beverages. (Which she expected to occur, based off of previous data)

Rei was quite content to stand there in silence until Shinji appeared, but Asuka was not. Asuka hated the silence, hated the quiet stillness. She was a woman of action, and so she surprised no one when she irritably threw back the rest of her beer and put her hands on her hips, glaring at the girl who had stolen her spotlight (**again**).

"Well? What'd you make, Wondergirl?"

"Not yet."

Rei's tone wasn't smug, as it was lacking in any emotion. However, it was in the very stoicness of her laconic response that lent her the air of smug superiority without leaving anyone the ability to call her out for acting so smugly superior. To everyone who had become accustomed to her over the years, it was Rei being Rei. To Asuka, it was another infuriating verbal barb, one of a seemingly endless line of open-ended statements that Wondergirl used to attack her, full of ambiguous double meanings without leaving her any recourse for response. What enraged the fiery tempered teenager even more was that nobody else seemed to pick up on them, or, even worse, when they did, they thought it was hilarious.

This was, of course, all done on purpose. Rei had become quite fond of the strangled sputtering noises that escaped from the German Pilot when her speech centers were shut down due to her inability to vent her anger.

Toji and Kensuke came back to the kitchen, standing at the back, looking in over the counter that divided the living area from the kitchen area. While Toji's expression could not be seen, Kensuke's was one of uncertain apologeticness. Fiddling with his bow tie, he answered the unasked question.

"Ahh... He's not ready yet."

Misato arched an eyebrow, her curiosity aroused. She had no idea what her wards had planned on dressing as, uncharacteristicly refraining from spying on them, in order to be surprised on the day of the party. Asuka's portrayal of her was delightfully insolent, and something that she would do herself, but while Asuka had been very secretive about her costume, Shinji's preparations had been clandestine as fuck. If she didn't know better, she would have sworn that the boy hadn't even been working on a costume.

They heard the front door open and then close, Asuka noticeably perking up, expecting to see Kaji stroll through the apartment to them, but the black suited man who moved with a purpose through the apartment passed the group without comment, proceeding down the hall towards Shinji's room. They stood where they were, as if riveted in place, listening to muffled voices, and then the man's footsteps as he came back down the hall and left with as much fanfare as he had arrived.

Silence reigned supreme in the Katsuragi household, even as the noise of the revelry going on in the rest of the building and outside trickled in. As a rule, the men of Section 2 who wore the black suits of the 'uniformed' groups kept interaction with the person to whom they were assigned to a minimum. (Nobody was certain just who was a member of 6 Group, the hidden 'plainclothes' division of Section 2, and thus the level of interaction with them couldn't be measured) To be sure, the men of Mobile Groups 4, 10 and 11 would ferry their charges around if the weather was bad, or if they were in a hurry, or if they had a number of packages, if they were asked. (Group 11 was asked more often than Groups 4 or 10) But for one of the black suits to actually to come in and go **talk** to one of their charges in their home was most unusual. Each person was intrigued at this turn of events, unsure of the meaning behind this portentous action on the part of the 10 Group member. They could hear the sound of Shinji's door sliding open and closed, and then they waited with baited breath as Shinji's soft footfalls, barely audible, came down the hall.

When Shinji came in view, his costume, which could only be called that due to the fact that it wasn't clothing he was regularly seen in, left people just as confused as Rei's.

Like Asuka's, it was comprised (mostly) of regular clothes, things worn everyday, but by other people. However, where Asuka had also dyed her hair and had copied the 'iconic' look of Misato Katsuragi, if Shinji was aping someone, nobody knew who it was. He was dressed somewhat nicely, wearing a pair of his school uniform's black slacks (he had lost the accompanying white shirt somewhere, and had hung them up in his tiny closet), a black collared shirt and a black tie. Over all of this was a white lab-coat, his hands tucked casually into the deep pockets. Over the upper half of his face, however, was the most outlandish component of his getup, being a large pair of black safety goggles, the large, completely opaque circular lenses hiding his cerulean eyes. The effect was remarkable, in that he looked nothing like himself, transforming himself into a striking figure. Due to the placement of the pockets on the lab-coat, he was standing up straighter than he normally did, his shoulders squared. His dark brown hair spilled over the top of the goggles, which drew the eye up to them and away from the rest of his features. The button up shirt and neatly done tie made him seem older, and due to the goggles, even his normally carefully neutral expression seemed to be full of an almost insolent confidence, and now the slightly off gait he had became a swagger.

Just as Rei had prompted unusual (and in some cases, uncomfortable) reactions in the group, so did Shinji, although he evoke a wider variety of response.

To his fellow students (and Kodama), it was shock and disbelief. This... this guy was Ikari?

To the adult members of NERV, it was surprise and a slight shivering of their spines (and souls), as on that strangely blank and at the same time almost arrogant face, the resemblance between father and son could be seen.

Nozomi and Mari simply thought he looked cool. Very cool.

Asuka saw the extremely deadly and hyper competent Evangelion Pilot who had appeared only once before, to come and do battle with Gaghiel, and in his rage and blood-lust, do what seemed to be impossible.

Rei saw him dripping with Scientific Prowess (amongst other things, like Raw Sex Appeal) and while she didn't recognize what she was feeling, she wanted to stick her tongue down his throat and mount him (not necessarily in that order).

Naturally, the effect was largely ruined when he opened his mouth. "H-hello." He swallowed his nervousness, which didn't show up as that so much as an insolent smirk.

Narrowing her eyes at her fellow pilot, Asuka tore them from Shinji and back to Rei. "Now that the Third is here, will you show us what's in the box?"

"Weighted Transport Container." Rei softly corrected her, but she stepped aside to reveal the box. She noted with a thrill that Ikari's eyes (well, lenses) were fixed on her. She carefully undid the safety latches along the sides of the container, and removed the top. Gasps of appreciation and sudden hunger filled the air as the product of careful work and experimentation came into view.

The cake, clearly home-made as no local store carried anything like it, was two layers tall, circular and fourteen inches in diameter. It was covered in white cream frosting, and topped at regular intervals by bright red cherries sitting on decadent thrones of frosting. A sprinkling of chocolate shavings sat in the center of the alabaster field in the center of the cake.

Asuka recognized it immediately, but did not know what to think other than it looked beautifully done. She turned a sparkling gaze to the girl who was a constant source of irritation, wanting simultaneously to hug her and to throttle her.

While the others did not recognize the specific type of culinary and confectionery delight that sat before them, the awe that they felt was universal. All gazed upon it's perfection with childlike wonder. In a rare moment of heavy facial expression, Rei beamed at them (mostly at Shinji), her cheeks pink with embarrassed pride.

Uncharacteristicly, Shinji was the first to find his voice. "Ayanami... this... this is..."

"Schwarzwald Kuchen." Rei responded, her voice light. She had been correct, she told herself. Her worries had been unnecessary after all, for indeed, there was none among them who could stand before her Science.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

It was well after midnight, and the block wide party showed no signs of slowing down, let alone stopping. True to plan, after the two 'young ones' had collapsed into sugar comas and had been safely secured by one of the black suits, Maya had managed to circumvent Hikari's careful guard over the punch bowel, and the remaining members of the portion of the party that was being held in Misato's apartment soon were lightly buzzed, which allowed Kodama to spike the punch more as her sister became much more interested in her helmeted boyfriend than in keeping an eye on her or Misato.

Revelers came and went, moving from apartment to apartment, celebrating the holiday as much as they did the feeling of general fellowship with one another as a united species against a universal enemy (in a war that they were winning, so far). Again, the fact that almost everyone present worked directly for NERV helped this feeling of brotherhood immensely. Costumes ranged through the entire spectrum of quality and type. Misato had won the adult costume contest, even though the person she had supposedly been competing against the most (Ritsuko, who had egged her friend on and on in order to see what she would wear in order to win) hadn't even dressed up.

Despite no one being able to tell what she was, Rei had won the teenager contest, by dint of the sheer complexity and uniqueness of her outfit. When she had explained what she was, Ritsuko had laughed heartily and had hugged the girl, surprising both of them.

The Sub-Commander had shown up again, and as a vampires were often depicted to prey on young ladies for blood, the very distinguished looking man had his pick of many a young NERV technician, whose hearts all went aflutter for the second most powerful man in the eastern hemisphere.

Shinji, trying to get a refill of punch for himself and Rei, moved liquidly through the crowd towards the refreshments. Someone in a very cheap ghost costume (a white sheet with two holes cut into it) handed him two cups as he stumbled forwards. As he murmured his thanks with a slight smile (made more pronounced by his goggles), the ghost reached out through the sheet to ruffle his hair and push him back towards Rei, who was engrossed with inspecting a jack-o-lantern that someone had brought up.

As he walked back out onto the patio, Rei turned and smiled warmly at him, encouraged both by the fruit flavored rum in the punch and by the fact that it was Shinji. He, for his part, smiled back, encouraged both by the rum in the punch and by the fact that it was Rei, and by the fact that he felt like someone completely different with the goggles on. He wasn't sure what it was (it was not, surprisingly enough, the rum, as this feeling of difference had started well before the first drops of rum hit the punch bowl), but somehow with the goggles he felt more confident. With the goggles, he wasn't Shinji Ikari. He wasn't quite sure who he was, but whoever he was, he was different. He handed the girl her cup of punch, and sat down on one of the cushioned benches that were standard issue for the apartments with patios.

"So, what are you again Rei? I'm sorry, but I still don't understand it."

Plopping herself down on the same bench, but not right next to him, Rei took a sip from her cup, relishing the fruity taste of the drink.

_This is, as Misato would say, most tasty and adequate._

"I'm a Genetic Life-form and Disk Operating System, Ikari. I'm what the MAGI are."

"The MAGI look like you? I thought they were those... those... big boxes in the command center."

Rei bit her lip, trying her best not to laugh. The Commander never laughed, but while she attempted to hold to the standard that her father kept, she failed. It was a light and bubbly sound, and she threw a hand to her mouth to try to contain it.

She failed.

Shinji stared at her, eyes still hidden but mouth open as Rei dropped her hand, smiling at him.

It was a combination of shared drunkenness, real attraction, shared burdens and triumphs, high spirits and Science that was responsible for what happened next.

Both moved towards the other, slightly tilting their heads, eyes closed and lips parted in anticipation.

What happened after that was entirely Kaji's fault.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka moved through the apartment, and then the floor, followed quickly by the building, and finally through the entire carnival looking for her missing love. Hikari was in tow, but the class representative did not normally have a chance to let her hair down, so to speak, and was getting tired of trailing after her friend in what seemed to be a fruitless search. Besides, she had her boyfriend upstairs, and she wanted to get him onto the karaoke machine with her. She didn't know it, but her cheeks were flushed, and had already forgotten about watching the morally deficient adults for suspicious behavior.

"Asuka, is he even coming tonight? Maybe he has to work."

Asuka shook her mane of purple hair violently. She too was growing irritated with the fruitless search, but wasn't ready to call it quits. True to form, the other members of her little clique had abandoned the pair, not being actual friends with the temperamental pilot as Hikari was. She tossed her hair again, still looking around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the elusive special inspector.

"He said he would be here. Besides, this will be the party of the year, how can he not be here?"

It was hard for Hikari to argue with her friend's logic. From what she had heard from Asuka, the man wasn't a shift worker, and wasn't even a regular NERV employee, but rather was a UN Special Inspector, who was currently assigned to the Section 2 group as a liaison with the UN Intelligence organization. Furthermore, this **was** going to be the party of the year, outdoing the impromptu block party that had erupted as Misato's first party spilled out of the building onto the street. Things had not yet spiraled out of control, but it was only a matter of time. On top of these facts, the rum that Hikari had imbibed was working it's smooth magic on her logic centers.

"What did he say he was going to be dressed as?"

Asuka frowned, her buzz not lightening her mood at all (she had avoided the punch in favor of Misato's beer, claiming that only kids would drink it, and as such was actually slightly less drunk than Hikari was at the moment). Sighing, she stomped back over to the elevator, getting in after a few other people, and pulling Hikari in before the doors closed.

"He didn't say. He might not even be dressed up in anything though, he's cool enough to get by just as himself."

Hikari couldn't argue that point, sharing Asuka's opinion where the man was concerned, having seen him a handful of times when in the redhead's company. Even when she was sober, the man's mere presence struck a chord with her, just as he did with many women. However, unlike Asuka, she was not fixated on him, due of course, to the fact that she had indeed only seen him a few times, already having a boy that she had crushed on for years now firmly in her grasp, and the fact that the man hadn't been the only person with something more than a superficial or perfunctory relationship with her for the past several years.

The man in question was standing the back of the elevator, smiling not his usual smirk but a real smile into a hand as he watched the purple haired girl, hidden in plain sight in his simple but effective costume. It was obvious to him what the girl was trying to do, but while he could choose to be flattered by the girl's infatuation with him, it worried him as much as it amused him the lengths she was going to entrap him to get him to reveal his 'real feelings'. He would have to talk to Misato about it.

Tonight, however, was not the night for such gloomy thoughts! No, the mood this night called for was light-hearted (if careful) revelry. He had no idea how Misato had gotten the Commander to sign off on letting the pilots get drunk (She hadn't, and she thought that he didn't know, even though he did. What she didn't know was that he was completely fine with it, as was Dr. Akagi, because they both knew that complete immersion in LCL, such as inside an Entry Plug, had the most curious effect of completely and quickly purging a person's system of alcohol. In the event of an Angel attack, by the time the Evangelions had made it from the cages to the surface, the pilots would be completely sober.)

So it was that he carefully made is way to Misato's apartment, weaving into and out of the other parties that were running in tandem with the rest, sampling food, drink, entertainment and ladies. He knew that he was a shameless womanizer, even if he had kept that aspect of himself away from Asuka (who was perfectly fine with the idea of wife husbandry in their case), all the while moving towards his one and only true love.

That love, currently reveling in the glory that came of being crowned the costume contest winner, was complaining good naturedly to her oldest friend.

"I can't believe that you and that scruffy ruffian completely made up those stories about your costume." Misato said, with a frown on her face and a beer in her hand. The hand without the beer traced a wide arc through the air as her irritation at being played so manifested as physical energy. "You never were going to wear a costume?"

Ritsuko laughed, helping herself to another cup of now heavily spiked punch. "Nope!" She grinned at the hurt expression on her friend's face, but reached out to hug her. Misato didn't pull away, but did look askance at the normally much more reserved doctor.

"What's got you in such a good mood? You're normally a party pooper."

Ritsuko merely smiled again as she rubbed her head against Misato's shoulder. "I can't let my hair down ever? This is a party, Misato!"

Chuckling, Misato waved in greeting to the Sub-Commander, who swooped in with a dramatic toss of his cape. "Yeah, but I thought that you forgot how to do that."

"Mmm... well, maybe there wasn't a good time for it before." The blond scientist released her friend and reached for her punch again. "All the Evangelions are in good working order, all of the pilots have acceptable synchronization scores, there is nothing that needs to be done to the interception, detection or protective systems of Tokyo-3 or the Geo-Front. All the current projects are on schedule. I even saw my kitty cat the other day. Life is good."

Misato laughed with Ritsuko, completely agreeing with her last statement. Indeed, things seemed to be going smoothly for once. It had been months since the last Angel attack, and all of the vital systems that were instrumental in protecting mankind were operating at peak efficiency, apart from the pilots, who by nature of the safeguards and limiters placed on their equipment would never reach a one-hundred percent synchronization score with their Evangelion. That being said, all of the pilots had been maintaining respectable scores over the past few tests.

Things were looking up for them.

Asuka and Hikari came back in. Misato's clone looked none too happy but Hikari seemed positively bursting with good spirits, searching now for her boyfriend, who at the moment was finishing up a turn on the karaoke machine with Kensuke (who had given up on explaining who he was) and Shinji. Thirsty after singing the unreasonably long song that Kensuke had picked out, Toji lowered his visor and made his way to the counter, where he ladled himself some of the festive punch.

"So you're the Stig then, yes?"

Toji turned to regard an equally expressionless ghost, who had wandered in shortly after Hikari and Asuka had returned. He nodded his own blank visage, but broke out of character (not that he had ever really been in it), responding.

"Yes! Ah, I'm glad that somebody finally got it. I mean, everyone at least realizes what I am, unlike Ken, but no one knew who I was."

The ghost nodded, and an arm pushed out of the sheet to gesture at Kensuke, the tuxedo no longer looking neat and crisp, but rather wrinkled. "I take it that your friend is not a wedding singer, then?"

Toji laughed, making a note to tell Kensuke that one. "No, he's supposed to be some famous spy. They made movies about him, I guess."

The ghost's arm disappeared back into it's body. "A spy? Wouldn't a famous spy not be a very good one?" Despite the serious nature of the question, heavy with both philosophical and practical meaning, the ghost's tone was light. This was, after all, a party, in fact, if some sources were to be trusted, the party of the year. It would not do to ruin it by being overly serious.

Toji, for his part, muddled through that idea fairly quickly for a buzzed teenager. "You know, that's a good... point! I wonder if Ken thought about that..."

"A good question. What of your other friend? I'm afraid that his costume has me at more of a loss than your spy."

Toji turned his gaze to follow Shinji, who seemed to be engrossed in one of those strange conversations with Ayanami that only he seemed to be able to coerce her into. They were over by the fog machine, and both were smiling. Small shy smiles to sure, but smiles nonetheless, rarely seen on either.

"To be completely honest, I don't know. Some kind of mad scientist, I guess? I don't think he really knows either. It looks cool though."

The ghost seemed to agree, or at least the head bobbed like the person underneath was nodding. "It certainly does, but what of his demeanor? He seems more animated than normal."

Toji nodded in return. "Yeah, I think it's the goggles. I mean, they change how he looks, and how he sees things. I mean, like really. We can't see him as Shinji, he's someone else. Even to himself. So he act's different."

"That's an interesting point that you raise."

Underneath his visor Toji beamed. He knew that while he was smarter than he looked, it still didn't count for much. For some NERV tech (all of whom were geniuses at one thing or another, he had found) to complement him so felt good. "I think it's part of people not knowing who you really are. You could be anyone, so they are forced to treat you different. Like me, no one would know it's me under here."

The ghost regarded Toji for the briefest of moments before responding. "Ah, but there you are wrong. I know exactly who you are, Toji Suzahara."

Buzzed even though he was, even though there was no threat in the ghost's voice, the fact that the ghost knew his name right off the cuff set off alarm bells in his brain. He backed away slightly from the ghost. His visor had been up when singing, but he knew that there was no way for the ghost to have seen who he was when he had come in. Something was wrong. Shivers traveled down the boy's spine and he tried to spot Misato, or one of the off duty Section 2 agents who had introduced himself earlier.

"I don't think I mentioned my name."

The ghost seemed to ignore the change in the atmosphere between the two. Dark eyes stared out of the cutout holes in the white sheet, seeming to bore into the boy's soul. "You are friends with a boy named Kensuke, and a boy who is close to a girl who can only be Rei Ayanami. That would make him Shinji Ikari, and that boy is friends with one Kensuke Aida and Toji Suzahara." All of this was said in a simple, matter of fact voice.

"You figured out who I was just on that?"

"In my line of work, it pays to be able to put the little details together to figure out the big picture. To see how they all fit."

"What other details have you put together then?" Toji asked, still very wary, but a little mollified by the ghost's explanation.

"Oh, mostly very boring details. But some that I haven't quite figured out just yet is why a boy would be friends with someone who attacked him."

More bells went off in Toji's head, but he too could put a jigsaw puzzle together, and was thinking that it wasn't a NERV techie under the bed-sheet, but a Section 2 man. "Maybe the boy can respect the strength and courage of someone who isn't afraid to face him," he replied in what he thought was a casual, off hand tone, but really wasn't.

"I don't think that Shinji Ikari thinks like that. But what's important is that you've worked out your differences, and are now friends." As the ghost said that, his tone lightened back up from the neutral levels it had been. Toji saw that Kensuke had come over towards the pair, either to grab Toji or to grab some refreshment. "And in my line of work, friends are important to have."

"And what sort of work is that?" Toji asked, unable to halt his curiosity despite the shivers still traversing his spinal column. Kensuke pulled up next to him, nodding to the pair as he grabbed a plate and began heaping food onto it.

"The defense business." Kensuke interjected, squinting at the ghost. "Mr. Kaji, right?" He laughed, continuing to pile snacks on his plate. "I gotta warn you, Asuka's looking for you something fierce."

The ghost regarded the pair for a moment, before moving off. "Aptly put, Mr. Aida. Don't stop thinking, Mr. Suzahara."

Kensuke looked from the retreating ghost to his friend. "What's that all about?"

"Dude, I don't even know..."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

First Lieutenant Maya Ibuki was not having a great time. She was having a good time, yes, inasmuch as anyone present at the party who was not currently on fire or had just been shot down (romantically or literally, either one would work) was having a good time. Some people were having a good time. A few were having a bad time (the aforementioned ones who had been shot down, and the two individuals who actually were on fire). Some were having a very strange time. But by far, the vast majority were having a legitimately great time.

But Maya wanted to have a great time. The problem with that however, was that she was faced with a massive dilemma. One that spanned both ethical, professional and legal boundaries.

She was torn between her feelings for two people. On one hand, there was her Sempai, Dr. Akagi. She looked up to the woman both academically and professionally, the woman easily being one the smartest people alive. Maya also had stopped lying to herself about the other ways in which she looked at the woman long ago.

However, the problems there were that Dr. Akagi was married to her work, and at best, was probably involved in a clandestine affair with the new UN Special Inspector that had come over from Berlin. It wasn't her place to judge, but she wished that it was with her and not him.

On the other hand, there was Asuka Soryu, Evangelion Pilot and wunderkind. All the same things that prompted her attraction, affection and dedication for Dr. Akagi were present in Asuka. She was even (slightly) more attractive than her Sempai.

The problems there were that Asuka was married to her work, was infatuated with the new UN Special Inspector, and was eight years her junior. She was the age of her legal majority, yes, but Maya wasn't sure sure how the sixteen year old pilot would react to any possible advances, the girl's ineffectual pursuit of Kaji non-withstanding. The fact that the age difference between the two of them was less than the difference between her and her Sempai completely escaped the otherwise analytical technician in her depressed and slightly drunken state.

_Curse you, Ryoji Kaji! Curse you for interfering with everything, you louse!_

She had hoped against hope, when Captain Katsuragi had approached her weeks ago with the plan to spike the punch, to get Asuka alone and find out what she could. Unfortunately, the girl had ignored the punch in favor of beer, but was not drinking enough of it to make it safe to approach her. On top of that, she was intent on finding where that louse was hiding.

Sighing, Maya threw back another cup of punch, and stumbled past a person in a horrible ghost costume. She giggled, instantly recalling a pre-impact comic, popular in both the west and east, that had prominently featured such a costume on a character as similarly unlucky as she felt.

_Maybe I should have dressed up like that... stupid miko outfit..._

With a boldness born of plenty of spiked punch, she slapped the ghostly figure where she figured it's rear was, and was rewarded with a firm handful. Blushing, she grinned at the ghost as it turned around to look at her.

"Did... did you get any rocks?" She giggled again, before sniffling, and then starting to cry quietly.

The ghost regarded the sobbing technician for a few moments, looking around to see if anyone else was paying any attention them. With a sigh and a shrug that seemed to scream 'Why Me?', the ghost reached out and hugged Maya, patting her on the shoulder. Then, the ghost took her by the hand and led her off down the hall towards the bedrooms.

After a moments deliberation, Maya found herself propelled into a room with the ghost, who quickly left and then returned with a box of tissues, a glass of water, and a plate of cookies. It set them down before her, ruffled her hair, and then left.

Maya stared at the door, not sure what was happening. Just then, the door opened, and Misato was pushed in by the ghost. She glared at the ghost, who pointed to the technician sitting on Asuka's bed before closing the door on them.

Misato glanced at the younger woman, before sitting down herself. "What's wrong Maya?"

"N..nothing... I think I'm a sad drunk..." Maya sputtered out, terrified at what Misato might say if she found out what feelings she was harboring for one of her wards.

Misato, for all her faults and failings as a traditional and responsible adult role model and parental figure, had gotten pretty good at telling when people were not being completely truthful about their emotional states. She leveled a sympathetic look at Maya.

"C'mon, Maya, you can tell me. What's bothering you? It's no good if you can't have fun at the party, you know."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Ritsuko stared at Kaji in open mouthed horror. "No... it can't be..."

Kaji grinned, running a hand down his smoothly shaved face. "Oh, but it is."

"But... You've never shaved it clean!"

"Halloween, Ritsy-poo. All part of the costume."

Ritsuko eyed the rest of the spy's costume. "Misato will flip when she sees you. Asuka too."

Kaji rolled his eyes. "Ah, so you noticed that?"

"Please. I work with the girl. You don't think we don't gossip about such things? But I think between the two of us we've shocked poor Maya."

"Poor Maya indeed."

Ritsuko watched the faraway look that appeared in the spy's eyes. "You leave that girl alone, you hear? Both of them. Asuka's a naïve young thing, but Maya's a pure flower. In fact, you leave my pilot corps and my technicians alone."

Kaji laughed good naturedly. "Asuka's probably the closest thing to a daughter that I'll ever have. You need not fear for her from me. Now, as for Maya? I don't think that she's a pure as you might think."

Ritsuko let the obvious probe pass. "And the rest?"

"I make it a point not to poach in the fields of those who drive ten ton cybernetic war machines."

The blond scientist laughed as she sipped her drink. "That makes Rei and Shinji safe, then. I don't think I'd like to see what would happen if someone tried to 'poach' the other, as you put it."

"Probably nothing pretty, if they caught up with you inside their Evangelions. But you're not worried about the rest of your techs, then?"

"What? Aoba and Makoto?" She leveled a flat look at her second oldest friend. She knew him well, or at least she had known him well. She didn't think that his tastes ran that way, but still...

"Love knows no gender, after all."

She sighed. "What am I going to do with you? Ikari knows, by the way."

"Of course he knows. He's at war with the real Illuminati. He knows everything."

"No he doesn't. Not everything. A lot, but not everything."

"Oh?" Kaji shot her a sly look, and then nudged her with an elbow, following that up with a wink and a nod.

"Get off. I know that you know. I also know that you'll be discrete about it."

Kaji leaned back against the couch, confident just as she was that their conversation would not only go unnoticed amidst the chaos of the party, that neither one would betray the other's confidence where it was concerned.

"What use is an indiscreet spy?"

"No use at all. If you get yourself killed, Misato will never forgive you, you know."

"Not something that I think that I could live with, but it won't matter. I'll be dead, after all."

Ritsuko opened her mouth to say something, but the spy cut her off with a finger pressed to her nose. "Misato just showed up again, and that's my cue to vanish. If you'll excuse me?" He winked at her before donning his costume again and moving off into the crowd.

Watching one friend disappear while the other approach, Ritsuko snorted in derisive laughter.

_Men, _she thought to herself, _Men and the games they play with us. _Her eyes settled on Hikari, who was teasing her now helmet-less boyfriend, before flicking uncertainly over to the least likely pair, Rei and Shinji, the former who was attempting to get the latter's goggles off his head. _But what of the games we play on the men we love?_

She glanced around for the cameras that she knew were there, wondering if the man she loved was watching them.

Misato flopped down onto the couch next to Ritsuko, who turned to look at her friend.

"Where have you been?"

"Oh, just taking care of a few things. I think Maya's got the hots for one of the other bridge bunnies."

Ritsuko started at this, Kaji's words echoing in her mind. _Is that what he meant? Heh. I suppose that everyone needs love like that. Maybe nobody is immune to such longing. Not even a flower as pure or as delicate as Maya._ Keeping her voice carefully neutral, she looked around for her favorite (and most reliable) technician. "Really? Do you know who?"

Misato shook her head. "No, she wouldn't say, but she was all torn up about it. Didn't want to cause an upset or anything, in case the feelings weren't mutual, or positively received."

_Well, that does sound like Maya. She would be mindful of such things. But still, I wouldn't have pegged any of the other techs as being her type. _

While her searching eyes eyes did not find Maya, they did come to land on Shinji and Rei as they were now trying to sing a duet. Their efforts in this were hampered by them slurring a few of the words, the fact that even with the microphones they weren't very loud, and that despite the minor changes of perceived personality imposed by the change of clothes and alcohol, they were still Shinji and Rei. Fortunately, none of the other party goers were any soberer than they; so the awkwardness went otherwise unnoticed and uncommented on. It also probably helped that Asuka was nowhere to be found, probably off looking for Kaji.

As she watched the pair of pilots muddle their way through the song, the feeling of warmth that had blossomed momentarily when Rei had explained to the befuddled crowd that she was the anthropomorphic representation of a GlaDOS came back.

_If even Maya is touched by the need to have and love someone, and be so loved in return, where does that leave Rei? Is it just a byproduct of her heritage, or is it a real need? Is it fair to keep them apart when Gendo wants to push them together? Is it fair to try to separate them when they look like they want to be together?  
_

She smiled as Rei seemed to trip and fall backwards into Shinji, nearly knocking him down and taking the both of them to the floor. _It does seem like she wants to push herself closer to him. But is it real, or is it because he suggested it to her? And what does the boy want?  
_

Half listening, half ignoring her friend as she chattered on about Maya and her speculations on who it was that the girl was interested in, Ritsuko continued to watch the unlikely pair as they made their way from the karaoke machine, handing off one of the microphones to the Sub-Commander. Seeing the very out of place smile on Rei's face, the blond scientist shook her head.

_I don't think that she would bake a cake on just a suggestion. That's far too aggressive for her. _

Rei went out onto the balcony, not stumbling nearly so much now that Shinji wasn't near, prompting a sly, knowing grin from her 'nemesis'. Rei was not as buzzed as she might seem to be, but was taking advantage of a handy excuse to come into physical contact with the Commander's son.

_Maybe I can help her out some..._

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Toji wandered back to the couch where his girlfriend sat waiting, and handed her a drink. "Hey, Hikari, what do you know about that Kaji guy?"

Hikari, still watching Shinji and Rei muddling their way through the song, making sure that they didn't bail out after all her hard work to get them up there in the first place, shook her head after a few moments.

"I don't know all that much, except what I've heard from Asuka. He works for the UN, right? Shinji and Rei don't really say anything about him."

Toji snorted. "Rei doesn't really say much ever," he pointed out, "and Shinji is almost as bad as she is."

As much as she wanted to argue in defense of their friends, she had to admit that he was right. While he wasn't being mean about it, it still struck her as rather insensitive. "So what makes you ask about him?"

"I dunno. I ran into him a while ago, and he just seemed... weird. Creepy, even. I mean, he knew who I was, and about me and Shinji's... ah..." Toji trailed off, trying to find the right word.

"Altercation?" Hikari prompted helpfully.

The boy shrugged, tacking the word onto his sentence. It seemed to work as well as any other, so he rolled with it. "Yeah... but that's not something that we ever really talk about. I mean, we haven't even mentioned it to Asuka.

Their small group never talked about the unfortunate circumstances by which Shinji had become friends with Toji and Kensuke, and in a rather round about way, with Hikari, after she found out just what had sparked the unassuming and timid boy into violence. On top of that, none of them had even talked to Rei about it. It had been the subject of a very pointed conversation between the three non-pilots and Misato one day, about the repercussions that could have befallen them if it hadn't been decided that Shinji's improvement in both synchronization and general well-being was due to his decidedly higher levels of social interaction with the trio.

To be sure, Asuka probably would have been skeptical that the boy had to have been forcibly restrained by his security escort that day, if she had not seen them try to do that very same thing, and fail spectacularly, on the day of the second battle with Gaghiel. Of the other isolated incidents that Shinji never told anyone else about, the security footage never made it farther than the Commander's desk, but further proof of the boy's volatile nature was unnecessary. Where Asuka was like a burning oil well, a constant stream of flame, Shinji was a volcano, capable of long dormant periods of inactivity, just waiting to erupt and destroy everything in his path.

But just because they never discussed it did not mean that it wasn't a regular source of conversation amongst the various adults that knew about it. Hikari pointed this out to her boyfriend, while silently cursing the fact that the costume's wings were permanently affixed to her shirt and kept her from snuggling up against him. Obviously, she had not thought far enough ahead during costume design.

"Yeah... who knows what those security guys talk about when they're alone?" Toji looked suspiciously at one of the on-duty agents as the black suited man stopped circulating through the room to talk to the bleached scientist that was in charge of the technical stuff at NERV, at least as far as the Evangelions and the super computers that apparently ran everything were concerned. For the life of him, he couldn't see what Kensuke saw that was so great about the spies that also worked as body guards.

"Hey..."

Toji turned back to look at Hikari, who was suddenly a lot closer than she had been a second ago, and as his head finished moving, it brought his mouth right into contact with hers, which prompted her to blush bright red but to carry on with her plan and pushed herself up against him. As his eyes went wide, she suddenly broke the kiss off and turned back to keep watch on the singing pilots, the only sign that anything had just happened was the fact that the both of them were blushing furiously.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka was torn. On one hand, the party was a lot of fun, especially once it had picked up in tempo, but on the other hand she still had yet to see her missing paramour. Misato's beer, while somewhat good, wasn't quite to her taste. She missed the beer of her homeland, and so she had sampled some of the other drinks, but couldn't really get behind them, finding them uninteresting.

So she had then sampled the punch out of desperation, and found it to be very good. She of course recognized that someone had spiked it. So she was running a fair buzz, but Hikari had abandoned the quest to locate Kaji in order to hang out with her jock boyfriend. She did promise to find Asuka if she saw or heard anything of the dashing UN inspector. If she had been sober, or if she hadn't been having as good of a time as she was, she would have fallen into a black mood at being abandoned and ignored in favor of others.

Hikari came up out of nowhere, a grin on her flushed features. She was smoothing out her blouse, and Asuka rolled her eyes at the sudden mental image of the thick-headed stooge pawing at her friend. It was not a pleasant thought, but Hikari had asked her not to say anything about her boyfriend. It was, in fact, one of the few areas in which the girl took a stand against Asuka.

"Asuka! Kaji's here!"

With laser-like focus and intensity Asuka riveted her attention on her friend, all other concerns pushed to the back of her mind.

"Where is he? What's he dressed as?"

"Toji ran into him over by the drinks and food. He says that he's dressed up like a ghost in a bed-sheet."

Asuka was quite taken aback by this costume. She had of course seen that very ghost around at several stages of the party, and had even participated with and against him in a few of the contests downstairs. While the quality of the costume left much to be desired, it was ingenious, as she had not been able to tell that it was Kaji underneath it. The ghost had won just about every contest that it had gone in for, meaning that the silent person underneath was indeed skilled in myriad areas, which only helped cement the fact that it was Kaji in Asuka's mind. To her, the only person allowed to out-preform her in anything was the tall spy.

She smiled, and had he been there, Shinji would have had a PTSD fueled flashback to the deck of the Othello, the predatory grin she wore now matching the one she had upon the arrival of the Angel. Spinning, purple hair flying out in a fan behind her, Asuka dashed down the hall towards her room, intent on retrieving the vial of 'improved' perfume, unaware that Misato had seen it and confiscated it, thinking it as being some of hers that her ward had lifted from her own supply. Of course, such as supposition was correct insomuch as Asuka's special blend had indeed begun it's life as Misato's perfume. As she ran, Asuka called back for Hikari to find Kaji and keep an eye on him. She had no desire for Misato to get to him first.

As her friend rushed down the hall for her 'secret weapon', Hikari turned and in a fortuitous turn of events, caught sight of the ghost, the distinctive if simple costume being easy to pick out amongst the throng of party goers.

Things were not go go according to plan for Asuka, however. Just as she reached her room, her hand stretched out to slide open the door, only to find it opened from within. Her smile became a look of confusion as Maya filled her vision, mouth open in shock as she saw what she imagined to be an infuriated girl rushing to remove her from her room.

Her arms windmilling and trying to slow down as to not crash into the technician, the normally quite athletic Asuka tripped and comically did just that.

The two young women fell to the ground in a drunken tangle of limbs and costume, Asuka inadvertently groping the simultaneously delighted and horrified Maya, who's arms in turn shot out instinctively around the pilot's waist, one hand slipping down to grab a hold of toned sixteen year old rear. Forward momentum being what it was, Asuka's head continued to travel even as the pair landed, their lips mashing together in a physics assisted kiss. Two pairs of eyes shot open even wider than they had been, before shutting closed in perfect synchronization.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato wasn't sure what to think about her friend feeding her boss cookies. While Kodama had mentioned something about have a preference for older men once, Misato hadn't thought that would put the Sub-Commander at the front of the line of party goers that the attractive older sister of her ward's class representative wanted to mack on. It was a very unsettling thought.

One of the ubiquitous Section 2 men moved into her peripheral vision, helping himself to a beer.

"I thought you on duty guys weren't supposed to be drinking." Her tone was amused while her words were stern.

The bodyguard flashed a familiar looking insolent grin at her as he lifted the can in a mock salute before taking a drink. It was then that she noticed that while he was dressed in the suit of the intimidating security agents, his hair was drawn into a pony-tail that was most certainly not allowed on the section's uniformed members.

Her smile disappeared as she reached out and plucked the reflective sunglasses from the man's face, turning into a scowl.

"Kaji?"

Kaji grinned at her again, taking a short bow before plucking the glasses out of her hands and donning them once again.

"And what can I do for you, Misato? I somehow misplaced my invitation, but I'm sure that it's here somewhere..." The spy made a show of patting the suit's pockets with his free hand.

"You... You shaved!" Misato almost couldn't resist reaching out to feel the smooth skin of his jaw, free of stubble now for the first time in quite a while that she could remember.

"Well, yes, otherwise the costume wouldn't have worked out so well. Nobody pays any attention to the men in black suits, after all, but they are all clean shaven for some reason."

Misato, remembering that she didn't like her ex anymore, crossed her arms and turned to leave. If he wanted to show up at the party, well, that was fine, but she didn't have to party with him. That part of her life was over long ago. She flounced off back towards the main area of the room, trying to get away from the irritating man.

Kaji grinned as he watched her leave. It was obvious she still had feelings for him, even is she wasn't willing to admit it to herself, or to Ritsuko, or anyone else for that matter. As for himself, if there was anyone (or anything) that he loved on a level that came close to his burning need to **know**, it was Misato. All the others were just pleasant company, or means to an end.

So of course he followed after her, still chatting away at her, not so much adding fuel to the fire as actually setting fire to an oil well. Had either of them been a tiny bit more sober, perhaps the ensuing firestorm would not have taken place.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji could feel Rei's warm breath on his face, smelling of punch and cake and food, and a small part of him (a very, very small part, that would soon be silenced) wondered how much of this was because of the alcohol he knew had to have been in the punch. He had figured it out soon enough after midnight, when he had suddenly started feeling much warmer, and when Rei's own porcelain complexion took on a pink tinge. While he knew that he could simply not drink the punch, it never occurred to him to actually do so. But as his eyes closed as he leaned in closer to her, the rest of him over-ruled that tiny section of his mind. There would be plenty of time later for recriminations and self-loathing, and if there was anyone without much faith in Shinji Ikari it was himself.

But tonight he wasn't Shinji Ikari, and whoever he was, well, he was going to kiss this blue haired beauty.

Rei, for her part, didn't want to close her eyes, as she wanted to observe every aspect of the much vaunted and often spoke of 'first kiss', but all of the research material that she had come across instructed her specifically to close her eyes. Allowing that there most likely would be additional kisses later on to observe with her eyes open, she decided to keep them closed for this one.

She could smell him, smelling mostly of smoke from when they had gone down to the towering bonfire earlier, but also of sweat and spilled punch. Indeed, the white lab-coat now had an orangeish stain running down the front, from when she had 'tripped' and fallen against him. To her mild disappointment, there had been so far a decided lack of shirtlessness. This was due, she suspected, to the fact that they were both much more sober than they had been at this time during the last party. She suspected that this was so because they were not drinking the punch in quite the quantities that they had then, expecting the drink to be spiked at some point during the night's festivities.

Because the pair had their eyes closed, they could not know what was about to happen. Even if one or both of them had been watching, it was still doubtful that either would have noticed (fixated on the other as they were at this time). Even with eyes-open it was unlikely they would have been able to do anything to mitigate the situation. While Rei was as acrobatic as Asuka, Shinji was much less so and they both had passed the from buzzed stage into that slightly drunk gray area, where distances were a little off, and the things that people said were suddenly a lot more important.

Kaji came flying backwards through the window, helpfully propelled by Misato who, in her defense, hadn't meant to throw him through the glass. Glass came showering down on the trio, the two teens pushed out of the way by a rapidly decelerating Kaji. All three escaped with only a few tiny lacerations, but Shinji's head met Rei's head in a fantastic example of how not to headbutt someone, and consequently both were knocked out.

Both were quickly revived by a frantic Ritsuko, helped by her two very red faced assistants (Asuka and Maya had come running when Misato's scream cut through the noise of the party like a slasher through a sorority party). After being awakened, the shy couple was sent off to Shinji's room with ice packs and instructions to sit quietly and not do anything. They would eventually fall asleep there, sitting on opposite sides of the bed, neither having been able to work up the courage to make a second attempt at a kiss.

The party in Misato's apartment had ended, tragically, but it still raged on elsewhere, so many removed themselves (at the not very subtle suggestion of the Section 2 agents that came pouring into the apartment). Kodama left with Kozo, while Kaji left alone, hurried out of the apartment by Ritsuko who then sent a still hysterical Misato to bed. Kensuke was found already slumped over asleep in a corner with some suspicious looking lipstick smudges on him; he would never be able to find out just who he had spent the last hours of the party with, although when he returned to school the following Monday, he found his popularity with several of the girls in their class had gone up. Hikari and Toji were crashed out as well, having fallen asleep on the couch. When Ritsuko went to check on Misato after she looked in on the sleeping pair of pilots in Shinji's room, she found that both Maya and Asuka were nowhere to be found. In fact, they had escaped to another apartment and would return much later to collapse on Asuka's bed.

Sighing the sigh of designated drivers everywhere, she made sure that all the glass was swept up and threw blankets on the sleepers. She then pulled out her phone and dialed the number that she knew that she should have called much earlier.

"Yes?" Gendo's even voice answered. She heard the sounds of paperwork being sifted through in the background; he probably hadn't moved from the desk at all during the night. In truth, she was surprised that he was still awake; he normally went to sleep around four in the morning, and it was already half past five. It seemed that her gambit of trying to miss the Commander at his desk had not payed out.

"There was an incident, but no major injuries." She paused, wincing. "Rei and Shinji were knocked unconscious."

"So I saw."

Her grimace grew deeper, but she knew that if he had seen it on the security cameras, then he had also seen that the pair was fine. She opened her mouth to speak again but was cut off before she began.

"Will you be coming over tonight or do you plan on staying there?" She thought that there was the tiniest sliver of longing in his voice, but put it down to her imagination.

"No, I'll be staying here. I'll give the two another preliminary check when they wake up."

"Very well. Let me know if there are any issues." The line disconnected with a beep. She sighed again, and then moved off towards Misato's room to grab what sleep that she could. She had a feeling that there would be... repercussions... for what had transpired.

Gendo softly put the phone back into it's cradle, a half smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Once again, his Science Director had met his expectations, acting just has he figured she would the moment that the spy went crashing through the window. While far from ideal, and certainly ending that part of the party on a sour note, he felt that overall the night had been a success. Whether or not anyone else shared his satisfaction remained to be seen, but Gendo had never much been one for crying over spilt milk.

Leaning back in his chair, his eyes flicked over to the crumpled white bed-sheet, lying by the door where he had discarded it after returning to the office. Yes, he thought to himself, now eying the transport container cube that sat on his desk with a note on it from Rei, the night had been a huge success. His half smile became a grin as he opened the cube and the rich smell of chocolate cake filled the office.

Author's Notes:

Hikari's costume comes to us courtesy of Mike313's outstanding story, Superwomen of Eva: Spirit.

As far as the sexes of the Evangelions and ADAM and Lilith go, ADAM and Lilith are asexual beings, but are referred to with the gender specific pronouns due to the associations of the relative gender of their names. Any physical representation of these genders on the two primordials is due to them manifesting as a result of the psychic emanations of mankind. The Evangelions were bred to reflect their creators' vision of their respective source material.

Each iteration of the Rei clone line does indeed 'inherit' a portion/reflection/facet of Lilith's soul, not so much in that because they are made to do so specifically, but rather because each human's soul is a portion/reflection/facet. They are clones in that they were engineered and purpose made, rather than being born as twins, triplets, etc. This being said, the ones swimming around in the Reiquarium are incomplete beings (no soul), and have not been 'born' yet. The birth process is completed in the imaging machine, and at that point a soul (and new girl) is born. The various scientists that built the machine and the Rei line do not completely understand what it is that they have. It does not, for instance, allow them the immortality that they believe it would.


	25. Chapter 25

A man walked along the platform of a train station, followed at a short distance by a small boy. The man's hands were thrust deep in his pockets, and dark circles hung under his eyes like dead men from a gallows. He was slouched over, and the dusty black suit he wore was rumpled and looked as if he had worn it for weeks. He was unshaven, a dusting of whiskers surrounding a beard that at most other times was kept neatly cut.

The boy, while looking as if he was but a moment away from bursting into tears, looked almost infinitely better than the man he was shadowing. His cloths were clean, for one thing, and he had much better posture, standing up straight. He himself was as clean as his clothing, in fact, his hair still slightly damp from a bath. The small backpack hanging from his shoulders looked worn, but was not dirty.

Both were trailed by a man dressed in a black suit and a pair of dark sunglasses, despite the day being heavily overcast. He was carrying in each hand a small suitcase, one for himself, and one for the child. He looked uncomfortable, but remained silent as he followed behind father and son. It was not his job to speak or pass judgment. His job was to escort Shinji Ikari to the man who was to be the boy's guardian from then on.

Shinji was silent, his throat choked with emotion. The last three months had been hard. Mommy wasn't around anymore, for one thing, and no one would tell him why. Father (it was never Dad or Daddy or Poppa, but always Father) barely talked anymore, and was barely home. Auntie Naoko was almost always crying, but wouldn't say why. She hadn't been around for the past few days, either. Father and Auntie had been shouting (Father almost never shouted, ever) at each other at dinner one night, and one of the Men In Black Suits That Should Always Be Obeyed, No Matter What had come into the apartment and had taken him from the table.

He hadn't seen either Auntie or Father for two days, but the Black Suit had been there the entire time, and had made food for him, and there had been extra applesauce. He had been good, quiet and did as he was told, just as he had been taught. His obedience was rewarded yesterday, when Father had come back to take him home, but the older man had been quieter than normal.

The train's whistle shattered the silence, startling Shinji. He looked at the train, and when he turned his head back towards the silent figure of his father, he found the man looking down on him, a frown cutting deep lines in his face.

"It's time to go Shinji. You're not wanted here anymore."

Shinji blinked in confusion as he stared up at Gendo. "Wha?"

"It's over. I'm done with you. I don't want you anymore. Nobody does. Go away."

Shinji reached out a trembling hand for his father's pant leg, but the man pulled away sharply. "Don't touch me. I'm leaving now."

True to his cold and uncaring word, Gendo spun on his heel and strode away, head down and not looking back. The young boy stood stock still, agony written all over him as his face screwed up in sorrow and he began to wail, his arm still outreached towards the retreating form of his father.

Shinji heard the heavy footsteps of the Black Suit who had followed them as the train whistled again.

Shinji woke up, sitting upright suddenly, drenched in sweat. He looked over at his clock, the red numerals plainly telling him that it was the middle of the night. He sighed, and reached out for the glass of water that sat on the nightstand, and after taking a deep drink, he reached under his pillow for the bottle of over-the-counter sleeping pills that he had obtained last week, after he had started having the nightmares over and over again.

Tossing back two of the small white ovoids, he took another drink of water, nearly emptying the glass. Sleep had been hard to come by for the past month for some reason, but he was not about to discuss the issue with anyone. He figured that as long as it didn't look like he was trying to drug himself that the security detail wouldn't interfere with his purchase. He threw the sweat soaked sheets off onto the floor, pulling off his shirt and balling it up, so that he could use it to wipe off most of the moisture that clung to his body. The fact that he was having trouble sleeping only made things worse for him, as he had been extremely clumsy of late.

It had started not long after the party, and at first had been a minor annoyance. He had tripped over his own feet more often, and had started knocking his knees and elbows into cabinets and tables. Then the trouble with his artificial leg had started, and he had begun falling down in earnest. When he had asked Dr. Akagi about it at the start of the monthly physical, she had frowned, and taken a few measurements, and then had started swearing.

Shinji was going through another growth spurt.

While completely normal for any teenage boy, and also annoying on it's own, it meant a world of issues for Shinji as one of the Evangelion Pilots.

He had put on two inches and ten kilos, and had outgrown two different plug-suits in the space of a week. His synchronization ratio with Unit-01 was now haphazard and random, and it had been decided that he would have to make due with using a set of crutches to get around with, as Dr. Akagi was not going to fit him for a third custom prosthetic leg that he was likely going to outgrow in a matter of days.

His increased clumsiness at home and his general shortcomings as a pilot had caused Asuka's opinion of him and her attitude in general to worsen. He reacted ti this the way he normally did to such social pressures, by withdrawing into himself, this time to a level as yet unseen by his friends and coworkers. Not even Rei, who had made it publicly clear that she was going to help him with carrying his school bag around now that he was stuck with crutches, could barely get him to talk.

Then the nightmares had started.

They weren't exactly the same, and they involved a variety of subjects, but mostly they were of the early years of his childhood that he could remember, and then of the battles with the Angels.

After the fourth sleepless night, he had hobbled his way to one of the nearby shops and had bought the bottle of sleeping pills.

Still thirsty, he grabbed his crutch and made his way to the bathroom, taking care to move as silently as possible, not wanting to wake the other inhabitants of the apartment, most of whom were very light sleepers. After draining two glassfuls of water, he stared at his reflection in the mirror, studying himself.

While still slimmer than most of the other boys in his class, his frame had widened out, his shoulders broader than before. His face also seemed to be a little broader, more square now, the softness of his features more muted. He also had more muscular definition, although he had always been more 'cut' than the other boys, even if they were bigger than him. The training exercises that the pilots underwent had seen to that, even though he would never be as adroit in his movements as the girls. Despite this, he never seemed to draw as much attention from the girls as Rei and Asuka did from the male population at school. Part of this was due to his lack of presence, and partially because it had become patently obvious to all others that Rei had set her sights on him. None of the female population wanted to test Rei's patience, as she had more nicknames than just "Ice Queen". "Psycho" was probably the most polite of the names that she had been called over the years. While it wasn't anything that the girl had said or done, it was just the way that she could make a person feel as she stared at them in bored silence. That, and the books that she considered to be suitable for 'light reading' for the literary book club. Where most people picked novels or at most autobiographies, she devoured books on subjects like advanced mathematics and quantum physics. Granted, she did not discuss what she read or thought about the books in very verbose terms, but the fact remained that these things were of casual interest to her.

But where Kensuke would occasionally bemoan his own 'lack of prospects', Shinji wasn't bothered by it much. He certainly wasn't bothered anymore that his entire social circle existed in one way or another due to his status as a Pilot. It was just life. It was how things were, as immutable as the sun and the moon, as constant as gravity. NERV, in one way or another, was his life now, and it looked like it would be that way for the foreseeable future.

Shinji sighed and hobbled his way back to his bed, flopping onto his back and stared at the ceiling, waiting for the pills to kick in. Today was a Saturday, and he had no school. He also had no responsibilities at NERV, as he had been taken off the roster due to the fact that his usefulness in battle was unreliable, due to his haphazard synch ratio. His next set of tests wasn't until next week, when Lieutenant Ibuki would run further tests on him to see if the situation was normalizing. Apparently the hormonal and chemical changes induced by the growth spurt were very detrimental to synchronization. Asuka had told him that they knew this due to tests that had been performed on her. She seemed to be very proud of that fact, but the conversation had left him confused. He himself did not relish being Dr. Akagi's experimental lab rat at all.

Yawning, Shinji closed his eyes and drifted off into a chemically induced slumber. His breathing became steady and even, and he was untroubled by further dreams.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Gendo sat outside the changing room, waiting. His son was being occupied elsewhere, thankfully, which meant that he could talk without worrying about upsetting the boy. He was a sensitive child, after all, quick to pick up on the negative moods and emotions of those around him.

The door opened, and Gendo forced a smile onto his face, despite the ball of ice that he felt growing in his stomach. The modified suit for today's test incorporated a helmet, as the neural interface required was very intricate. The helmeted form, undeniably female under the skin-tight plug-suit nodded at him.

"Do we really need to do this? Isn't there another way?" He asked, standing up. "I'm sure that if we put the experiment off for a little while longer we'll be able to come up with an alternative."

The helmeted figure shook her head, and the mechanically filtered voice was flat and emotionless, sounding nothing like the woman who wore it. "There is no other way. It has to be like this. You worry too much. Everything will be fine. It'll work out in the end, trust me."

Gendo shook his head as they walked down the empty hall towards the test bay. "At least let's do it without involving Shinji. He doesn't need to see this. It'll be hard enough for him as it is."

There was no hesitation in the response, and it came immediately. "No. He needs to see this happen. We're going to build a better place, a better world and a better being. What's the point of a brighter future if nobody knows about the dark past?"

As they entered the observation room, their young son came rushing up to greet them, a smile on his face. Dr. Naoko Akagi followed behind, wearing a strained grin, her own fears and apprehension about the day's test well hidden, but still visible to those who were in the know.

Yui Ikari knelt down and hugged her son, picking him up and taking him over to the window, where the half completed form of the Evangelion stood, pale gray flesh and metal cybernetics mixing with harsh florescent lights to create a picture that seemed to be more nightmare than hopeful dream.

"We're going to make a better, brighter future Shinji. Are you ready to see history in the making?"

The boy nodded vigorously. He had grown up in the labs of GEHIRN, and the monstrosity that stood before him was nothing to fear. It was what his Mommy and Father spent all their time working on, after all. It was... family.

Gendo watched, a forced smile on his face, as his wife set their son back down. She moved to the elevator without another word, and left her family in the observation room as she went down to the fate that she had engineered for herself.

Moving to the window, he stood next to his son as they watched the helmeted form walk daintily towards the waiting Entry Plug. Just before boarding, the figure turned and shot a jaunty salute towards the observation box, and got in.

Shinji fidgeted as the plug was taken up and over to the waiting socket, but once the the white tube was locked in place and the intercom sounded with his mother's voice, the young boy turned back to the incomplete giant before them.

A holographic screen display built into the plexiglass window snapped into focus, showing them the video feed from inside the plug. Yui waved to the camera, unable to see her audience, but playing to them anyways.

_She always did have a flair for the theatrical._ Gendo mused to himself, his heart pounding in his chest. He resisted the urge to wave back. It was an urge that Shinji gave in to, however, grinning as he did so.

"Engaging the primary contacts. All systems read on-line and stable."

One of the uniformed technicians spoke into his microphone, counting off the readings relayed to his station. "All life signs are being reported and recorded. Brain waves are steady, and the Ego-Borderline is defined."

Yui nodded. "Flood the compartment with the fluid. We'll engage secondary contacts after complete submersion."

"Beginning the LCL flood now."

Swallowing hard, Gendo forced himself to keep watching. She knew full well what she was doing, not only to herself or to him, but to their son and the plans of SEELE for the world. If she could go through without flinching, then was it not his duty as her husband to watch this without flinching?

"Engaging the secondary contacts, in three... two... one... now."

Almost immediately, red lights switched on and alarms began to sound as things began to go wrong, all according to the plan.

"There's a problem with her Ego-Border! The waveform is collapsing!"

The corpse giant before them trembled, shaking in it's restraints like a rabid dog. The camera feed flickered and vanished into static, and then returned to crystal clarity, but it was not Yui's helmeted form on the display screen.

Gendo gasped and recoiled as he saw his son, beaten, bruised and bloody sitting within the cockpit of the Entry Plug. Empty eye sockets stared at him, blood weeping down the boy's face to drip onto the white and blue plug-suit. Shinji smiled with split lips, his mouth a ruined wasteland, the broken shards of teeth sticking up out of torn, bleeding gums. He reached up with a hand, a withered and burnt limb, blackened by a heat unimaginable towards the camera.

"Father..." the boy rasped, coughing up spittle, but still smiling that horrible rictus grin, "Do you have a use for me now?"

Gendo Ikari woke up with a start, sitting at his desk, an unread report sitting before him. He turned to his computer, and called up the security camera for his son's room. His breathing slowly normalized as the sleeping figure of his son appeared, stretched out on his narrow bed. The point where his leg ended just above the knee was hidden by the pair of shorts that he wore, but he otherwise looked fine.

"It was just a dream. Nothing more." he whispered to himself, watching his son sleep. He paged through the camera feeds, showing him the locations of the girls. Asuka was sitting in her bed reading, but while he couldn't see the title of the book from picture's angle, he was sure it was one of the many textbooks she owned. Rei was sleeping on the couch in Misato's living room, having taken to staying there as much as possible, intent on nursing Shinji back to health despite the boy not actually being sick. Taking off his glasses, he rubbed his eyes with his hands, wiping sleep from existence. Squinting, he looked again at the report without putting his glasses on. It was another report from Massachusetts, discussing the latest proposed changes to the main production models. It was long, it was dry, and it was ultimately unimportant.

Gendo left the oppressive office, intent on securing caffeinated refreshment and a change of scenery. While it was close to the point where he would usually go to bed, the unsettling nightmare was more than enough to keep him from wanting to go back to sleep for the foreseeable future. As he stalked through the empty corridors, he tried to put the dream out of his mind by thinking on the current situation, and the latest set of messages from Lorenz.

The old man, while brilliant in his own horribly evil way, did not really understand that there was not much that could be done with the Third Child in order to stabilize his synchronization abilities. It was one of the things that had been taken into account when the Scenario had first been laid out, but as the entire thing sat on the boy's shoulders, SEELE was hesitant to let things run their course without sticking their fingers in.

This close to godhood, they would not, they could not just stand by and watch the keystone to their plans crack and crumble into dust. But even though their attempted micromanaging was annoying, at the same time it was reassuring, for it meant that they would be the same way should the boy's life ever be in danger from unacceptable sources. Unit-01 was the key to becoming God, and as far as they were aware, Yui was Unit-01, and Shinji was the key to Yui.

But the chemical changes triggered by the body's genetic instructions was not something that they could simply counter-act. It would end sooner or later, and everything would slowly get back to normal. Gendo chuckled to himself as he entered the abandoned cafeteria. Shinji would need some time to become accustomed to his new height, and Gendo doubted that this was the last such growth spurt. He himself was five foot eleven, several inches taller than was average for Japanese men, and Yui had been tall as well. Ritsuko had also thrown an interesting proposal across his desk, speculating on the effects of long term exposure to the nutrient rich LCL on the growing bodies of the pilots. The regenerative effects of the primordial soup helped with repairing the pilot's bodies when fed to them intravenously or via the gel-cap medication, but now the blond doctor was investigating whether or not it would add more fuel for the boy's body to turn into mass. There had been other concerns during the girls' various growth spurts in the past that had kept this particular issue from study, and at any rate, boys and girls developed differently during puberty. As he was their only male pilot, and with the current lull in Angelic activity, Ritsuko was looking for ways to amuse and occupy herself, and this seemed to fit the bill.

But even if the Third Child tacked on several inches and more than a couple of kilos to tower over and out mass the rest of his class, he doubted that his son would change much in the personality department. He would still avoid of confrontation for the most part, and would probably become even more miserable due to the fact that he stood out even more. After all, if nobody noticed him, nobody could hurt him. Security through invisibility was his modus operandi.

Gendo sipped his coffee as he looked at the sandwich selection, trying to decide if he was hungry enough to warrant a snack to accompany the sleep banishing elixir. It was three o'clock in the city of Tokyo-3, and Gendo knew where his Children were. The most pressing thing on the mind of the most powerful man in Japan was what sort of sandwich he wanted to eat.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kaji yawned, dropping the small flashlight that he had held in his mouth as he rifled through the contents of the filing cabinet. Sighing, he reached in and picked it back up, wondering if he should call it quits for the night and go home to get some sleep.

He was currently in the financial offices of one of the tertiary companies attached to the Marduk Institute, but he had yet to find out what exactly the "Belham Group" did. A lot of money seemed to pass into and out of the company, judging by the expenditure reports, but he had been unable to find any invoices that were not covered in cryptic alphanumeric codes. He hadn't even found the pay-sheets for the employees.

He was supposed to hang out with Asuka later today, and the girl would be cross with him if he fell asleep during lunch. Kaji sighed again, wondering what had gotten the girl's knickers all in a twist this time. She had sounded extremely irritated when they had last talked, even if she tried to mask it with a syrupy sweet 'seductive' voice. Having dealt with her for the past four years, he knew when something was bothering her, but it could be from any number of things. He just hoped that the day wouldn't devolve into another attempt by the girl to get into his pants. As much as the teenaged girl might be enamored of him, she didn't meet his age limits, a hold over from being a pre-impact child.

Besides, he was much more interested in the girl's flatmate. Misato might not be receptive to his amorous overtures now, but she had been one of the only two women he had ever really loved, the other being the blond doctor, who was more interested in her work and her boss now than him. Truth be told, he was getting tired of the carefree love 'em and leave 'em bachelor lifestyle. He wasn't ready to settle down and start a family by any means, but he could certainly do with a more stable relationship.

Putting the files back in order, he slid the drawer shut and tested it to ensure that it had locked itself upon closing. Attention to little details like that was separated the pros from the amateurs, and Kaji was no amateur. Adjusting the janitor's cap on his head, he grabbed his pushcart and left the office, emptying the wastebaskets as he made his way back towards the ground floor, and nodding to the security guard as he passed. The guard frowned and squinted at the unshaven man, not recognizing him, but there had been a note at the desk about the cleaning agency sending a new guy tonight, and Kaji had a matching ID badge.

The irrepressible spy whistled a jaunty tune as he left the building, tossing the trash bag into the dumpster, along with his uniform. Carefully arranging the stained tie so it was casually undone against his untucked shirt, he splashed a little vodka onto himself from an airline bottle, and gargled the rest of it for a minute, before tossing the small glass vessel after the uniform. Sticking his hands into his pockets, he started to amble down the street, still whistling, just another office worker going home after a late night at the bar.

He was getting nowhere with investigating the Marduk Institute. The mysterious collection of businesses, research firms and think tanks was supposedly tasked by the Human Instrumentality Committee of the UN to locate potential Evangelion Pilots, among other things. In theory, it was supposed to have a second oversight committee, also appointed by the HIC, but it was turning out that there were a lot of connections via subsidiaries between the entities of the different organizations. Many of the companies also seemed to be nothing more than puppets of NERV as well. Almost all of them were privately held companies, with no public information about the people who ran them. Some didn't even maintain public websites, but still kept ownership of several domain names, each one a seemingly arbitrary combination of letters and numbers.

He could just ask Ritsuko, of course, but it was doubtful that she would give him anything other than one of her looks. He could always try pumping her little assistant for information, but the mousy tech and he didn't exactly travel in the same social circles, so he'd have to come up with some plausible reason to chat her up. Still, it was an angle worth looking into.

In the meantime, he could bug Misato when he came around to pick up Asuka for lunch. He doubted that she knew anything about the Marduk Institute or it's selection criteria, but if he could spark some interest into her, who knew what she might dig up? Once she got a notion into her head, she wouldn't stop until she had what she wanted.

That matter settled for the time being, he turned his thoughts to another problem as he climbed the stairs to his apartment. SEELE wanted to know more about the current issues that the Third Child was having with synchronizing with Unit-01. While his handler hadn't actually come out and said anything definite, it seemed to the spy that they were very worried about the boy's performance. Shinji was important to them for some reason, but he didn't know why.

_As it stands, it seems to be nothing more than what Ritsuko said before on Monday. I mean, everyone knows the body and mind undergo a lot of changes during puberty, and after all, wasn't that one of the reasons why they had to use pubescent and prepubescent kids as pilots? Perhaps they were worried about losing a third of the pilot corps, if the issues he was having would be permanent instead of just a temporary issue._

_But Asuka has undergone similar bouts of synchronization issues before, each coinciding with her own growth periods. She bounced back and stabilized each time without fail, so why should Shinji be any different? I wonder if Ritsuko has anything on Rei from during her growth spurts. _

_At least it's been quiet for the past few months, _the spy thought as he unlocked his door and went inside, kicking his shoes off. _There hasn't been any hint of Angelic activity anywhere, and the repairs to the defensive lines and the intercept system are complete. Even the work on extending the sensor network is ahead of schedule. Why are the old men getting antsy now? _

Kaji, just a slightly neater person than Misato when it came to housekeeping, tossed his clothes in the general direction of his laundry hamper, where they landed at it's base on the small pile of discarded clothing. He flopped down onto his bed, rolling the blankets around him into a sort of cocoon and pushed all thoughts of work out of his mind as he drifted off into sleep. There were other, more pleasurable, things that he wanted to dream about than the shadowy men of SEELE and their paranoid ideas.

_Mmmm, Misato..._

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

The morning was bright and warm, despite being late in winter, but Toji had not been alive to know the chill of seasonal change. Only at the polar caps and at higher altitudes did it get chilly anymore. Second Impact had altered the world in ways that still weren't completely understood, but none of this was on the athletic boy's mind as he sat on the park table watching his younger sister skip around and play with Nozomi. Despite the near miraculous recovery that his sister had undergone, she would forever move with a limp, and no matter how slight it was, it was clearer to Toji than the burning sun in the sky. It left a foul taste in his mouth.

But he didn't hold a grudge towards Shinji over this, not anymore. It wasn't because the boy had torn into him, or because he had rescued them, but because of what little that he knew for sure about how the Evangelions worked, and how little training that Shinji really had. If there was fault to be placed, it did not lie on the shoulders of his friend, but on NERV.

But NERV was an organization, and as such had no shoulders. There was no-one who stood up and said, it's my fault that the boy was sent out untrained. It's my fault that this happened. Besides, both his father and his grandfather worked for NERV, one as a technician and the other in one of the research labs. Did the blame fall to them?

NERV had also seen to it that Mari had received excellent medical care, even if the official apology from the public relations office was a generic letter despite the 'human' touches. He knew how these things worked, after all.

Shinji was brand new to the whole thing. A complete rookie going up against a monster that had laid waste to anything that had stood in its way. It had shrugged off some of the most powerful weapons available! Shinji, the rookie, the newbie, had gone up against it, and had won.

Asuka was always quick to explain how lucky the boy had been, how lucky they all were that he had somehow managed to fumble his way to victory after victory until her arrival. He hadn't received the years upon years of training that she had, after all. But the redhead's exposition at the sake of Shinji's hard earned fame left a bad taste in his mouth too, despite Shinji's protests that it was fine, and that she was right.

Toji wished for a moment that he had never gotten mixed up with the pilots, that he hadn't befriended the slender boy that seemed to be such a bundle of contradictions. But it was just for a moment, and he hated himself for the selfish thought. Still, his life would be so much simpler if the trio of pilots wasn't in it.

He sighed again as he checked the time on his phone. Kensuke was supposed to have been here thirty minutes ago, the boys having decided to meet up at the park. Toji was watching the younger girls for the day, as he liked to spend as much time as possible with his sister, and Hikari had errands to run that she couldn't take Nozomi on, so he had agreed to watch her for a few hours as well. Kensuke and Shinji were supposed to show up and hang out, giving him someone to talk to while the girls played and getting the introverted pilot out of the house on a weekend.

But so far neither one had showed up yet, and there had been no word from either that they were canceling. Scowling, he began to call up the contact info for his geeky friend, when the boy came walking down the path, waving to the younger girls with a smile on his face.

Toji shifted the scowl to his friend. "You're late. Not cool, man."

Kensuke adopted a hurt expression. "I'm not late! I've been here just as long as you have!"

"Really."

"Yup! In fact, I followed you all here!"

Toji blinked, confused. "You... followed us here? From where?"

"From Hikari's place, when you picked up Nozomi. Although, to be honest, I was following you and Mari from your house. I didn't want to hang around your girlfriend's place waiting for you; that'd be a little creepy."

Toji threw a flabbergasted look at the other boy. "And following us wasn't? What were you doing?"

"Um... isn't it obvious? I was practicing my tailing skills. You mean you didn't notice me at all? That's great!"

"Yeah," Toji said with obvious sarcasm, "That's really great. Are you insane?"

"Oh come on. It's not as bad as you're thinking. It's not like I was standing around all morning waiting for you two to leave. I just happened to show up in time to see you walking down the street on the way to Hikari's, and decided to do some impromptu stalking." The bespectacled boy made a face. "Wait, that sounded bad."

"You're nuts. Don't do that again. Practice your creepy shit on someone else."

"On who? It's not as if I have a wide social circle, Toji. Besides, you can start practicing to see if you're being tailed."

"Why on earth would I care about practicing that?"

"Well, you're friends with the three Pilots, right? You could get picked up as a hostage! You know, as a way to get to them."

"Great. Just what I needed to worry about. Look, go follow Asuka or something. I'm sure that she'd love having a stalker, if she doesn't already."

"Right, because if she doesn't castrate me, her security escort will."

Toji opened his mouth to reply with an equally sarcastic comment, but bit it off as Shinji rounded the corner of the path, a look of concentration on his face as he carefully hobbled towards them on his crutches. "Shit, Shinji's here. Don't saying anything about kidnappings or stuff like that."

"I'm not dumb, Toji." Kensuke grumbled to his friend, before smiling and waving to the slowly approaching boy. "Yo, Shin-man! Over here!"

Mari and Nozomi looked up from where they had been running around at the sound of the boy's name. They hadn't seen him since the Halloween party, and they were first amongst his fans.

"Mr. Shinji!" they cried out in unison, rushing over to him, drawing up short as they saw that he was without his prosthetic. Mari found her voice first as the pair of girls stared at him. "Um... are you okay?"

Shinji managed a smile, and even if it wasn't a bright one, it was an honest one. "I'm fine. Just outgrew my leg. Nothing to worry about!"

Toji called out to the girls to get back to playing around as Shinji sat down on the park bench with a sigh. "You alright man? Where's Rei? I thought that you two were attached at the hip these days."

Shinji shook his head as he leaned back, resting against the table. "She and Asuka got called into headquarters for some new test."

Kensuke shook his head wistfully. "Man, what I wouldn't give to have a hot girl waiting on me hand and foot like that..."

"It's not like that!" Shinji protested as Toji smacked their friend upside the head. "I mean-"

"Dude, you can't tell us that Rei doesn't have the hots for you. There's no way that you can deny it. She goes with you everywhere during the day, and she sleeps over at your place on the weekends."

"Yeah!" Kensuke added, rubbing the back of his head, "and what was Asuka saying the other day? That Rei's not letting you cook when she's there? That she's been making your meals?"

As embarrassed as he was about the good natured teasing, Shinji couldn't deny that he did enjoy the fact that Rei was in fact trying to 'see to his needs while on convalescent leave' despite also feeling bad about enjoying it and that it was taking up all of her free time. She showed up in the early morning to wake him up if he wasn't already, make breakfast if he wasn't already eating, and carry his schoolbag for him as they walked to school. She also had been making lunches for him at her apartment, and would make dinner for the apartment's inhabitants before leaving later in the evening. She had taken to staying over on the weekends, sleeping on the couch (wearing pajamas).

Asuka, who had grown accustomed to the lunches that Shinji had been making her in addition to his own, had complained about having to obtain her own midday food once more, leading to some interesting conversations during the lunches when the pilots ate together.

"Well, okay." Shinji admitted. "But we're not like you and Hikari."

Toji shrugged. "So what? You've gone on a couple of dates, and you two spent a lot of time together even before... this." The boy waved at the crutches halfheartedly. "As far as everyone's concerned, you two are a couple."

"But isn't it wrong to just assume something like that? I mean, you know, without asking her to... um..."

"Go steady?" Kensuke suggested, bored of the turn the conversation had taken. "Jeez, man, what else is there for you to do?" The boy began to count items off on his fingers. "One, you've rescued her from death and danger. Two, you've been to a really fancy restaurant with her. Three, she devotes all of her spare time to helping you when you're... um... not at a hundred percent. Four, there was that thing with the collar and the bell. Five, making out. Six-"

Shinji blushed as he held up a hand, interrupting his friend. "Um... we haven't done the last one."

Both boys stared at Shinji as he tried to nonchalantly stare off into the distance.

"What do you mean you haven't made out with her yet? You've slept together!"

"Well, yes, but... I mean..."

Toji clapped a hand to his face, sighing hard. "Right. You've slept together, but it was more along the lines of passing out in the same bed after the party. That's what Ken meant. But still, you mean that you haven't even kissed her yet?"

Kensuke just shook his head sadly. "What is the world coming to when I get more action than an Evangelion Pilot?"

"A horrible world." Toji replied. "Not even like a peck on the cheek? I mean, that's part and parcel with taking care of someone when they're hurt or sick. I'd have thought that she would have at least gone in for something like that." He narrowed his eyes as he studied the beet red boy, finding it hard to believe that the two pilots hadn't kissed yet. "Are you sure you didn't make out or anything at either of the parties? What about on your dates?"

Shinji shook his head again. "Nothing."

"Dude, that's... Okay, so I don't know what that is, but it's something."

"Maybe she's waiting for you to make the first move."

"But what if she doesn't want to kiss me? I'll ruin everything!"

Toji smacked Shinji upside the head. "Idiot. If she doesn't want you to kiss her, then she shouldn't be sleeping over at your place. Especially since it's not like you live alone. Helping you out while you're on sticks is one thing, but practically becoming a live in maid? That's something else altogether."

"Yeah, he's right Shin-man. You gotta take the lead here. You can't just wait for her to fall into your lap anymore than she's already done, ya know? I mean, I know that neither of you are very forward, but not even the slutty chicks would volunteer to play nurse if their boyfriends got banged up the way Rei does for you. She's practically screaming at you to take her in your arms and lay a big wet one on her."

Toji chuckled at the image that Kensuke had painted for them. "Yeah, I wonder where she got the idea to even do that from. I mean, it's like Ken said, most other people wouldn't do something like that, and Rei's never been one for public displays of, well, anything."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei stood in the door to Dr. Akagi's laboratory down in the lower levels, the secret one, the one that housed the Machine, and was neighbor to the Reiquarium. It was not yet the appointed time for the image download into the massive array of mechanical and biological components, but the blond haired hussy had sent her a message telling her to come down early.

"Ah, Rei! You're here." Dr. Akagi said cheerfully as she looked up from a clipboard as she checked off readings on several displays. The chamber was one of only a few that were completely isolated from the MAGI, with no data links to the outside world. What went on in this den of Science and Madness was meant to stay a secret, with no chance for spillage of information. All notes had to be taken by hand, and none ever left the room, except as a fine ash. Only four people had access to it, being Gendo, Kozo, Ritsuko and Rei.

Rei stepped inside the room, the hydraulics groaning as the heavy blast door slid back into place, effectively sealing them inside. Should the sensors built into the door register it being breached, almost five hundred pounds of C4 would be detonated, effectively erasing all that had gone on here from history.

"You instructed me to report early for the image download, Doctor."

"Yes, I did. I wanted to have a little talk with you, Rei. Go ahead and sit down." Ritsuko motioned to the small table and collection of plush chairs that sat in one corner of the room, looking out of place amongst the sinister and oppressive machinery. A small lamp sat on the table, bathing the small sitting area in comforting light, and a tray of snacks and a teapot waited next to a pair of mugs. All three pieces were white with a cat motif. It was obvious to anyone who knew Ritsuko that these were her own items, and not merely something borrowed from one of the cafeterias.

Curiosity aroused, Rei sat down in one of the chairs, smoothing out her skirt and looking on expectantly as her host put down her clipboard and settled into another chair. The older woman sighed and took her glasses off as she leaned back, studying the blue haired clone. Ritsuko knew that the only way to deal with the girl was to be direct, but sometimes being direct and to the point, especially around troubling and embarrassing issues, was harder than it should have been.

"Rei, why do you like Shinji?"

Rei blinked, obviously surprised by the question. "Is this pertinent to the image download?"

"No Rei, it's not. But it's pertinent to other things. Why do you like Shinji?"

_He is an interesting subject. He makes me feel warm inside when he is near, and I worry for him when he is in danger more than I do others. Because he likes me. Because we have a Bond. Because the Commander told me I should be nearer to him. Because he is mine. But none of that is any business of yours._

Rei opened her mouth to verbalize a response, but the doctor held up her hand, cutting her off before she began.

"Rei, I know that you're smitten with him. There's no denying it. You're a healthy young woman, and you've already had a few developmental cycles. I know that you've read enough about biology to know what I'm talking about. I need to know about this because just like everything else that affects the physical and mental states of the pilots, it will affect your synchronization with the Evangelions."

"If it is self evident that I am indeed smitten with Pilot Ikari, how does the source of the emotional attachment matter?"

It was with great self control that Ritsuko didn't choke on her tea. That wasn't quite the response that she had been expecting. Sighing, she set the cup back down onto the table. "Rei, if this is just a case of minor infatuation, it could blow over before things get very serious between you two, but if you get into it pretty heavily, when you break up, it will result in heavy emotional fallout."

The doctor shifted in her seat, and picked up the mug again, idly turning it around in her hands. "So you see, this is a very serious issue. If you are serious about liking him, then you should take steps to verify that he likes you as well, and that this is something that you both really want to pursue. Pining away for someone is just as bad as a breakup, even one that ends fairly amiably."

Rei nodded, thinking on the woman's words.

_What she is saying is not without merit. While I am fairly sure that we are mutually attracted to each other, it would not hurt to further ascertain his intentions towards me. Oh, is she still talking?_

"-and of course, honesty is very important in any relationship, no matter how shallow. It's better by far to go into things with your eyes wide open, fully aware of what each person expects to get out of the relationship. Communication is very important, both verbal and non-verbal. I know that you both talk to each other more than you do anyone else."

Rei digested this new information in silence. Much of her research had been done so as to not alert Shinji to her intentions, but of late she had done away with trying to keep her distance from her subject in favor of a more... personally satisfying approach, even if it meant that she had to scrap plans for certain future experiments. But one of the things that had remained true was the lack of information deliberately flowing from her to him.

_Perhaps it is time to change that. But he must have some idea about my intentions towards him, I did give him a thank-you gift as was appropriate based on empirical evidence gathered over time from our age bracket. It is only unfortunate that the Second Child was present. I do not doubt that her presence influenced the data I gathered._

"But you know, he must be having a rough time of it, what with this growth spurt of his. You know how Misato and Asuka depend on him for just about everything, and he can't even get around without crutches right now!" Ritsuko made a tsking sound before pouring herself more tea, and then pouring out some for the teenager. "Don't you think so?"

Rei regarded the drink ambivalently, mulling over the doctor's query. She reached out and picked up the cat covered mug and took a tentative sip, discovering that it was a peach and pomegranate infused white tea, both sweet and tart at the same time. It was not disagreeable.

"Yes." Rei shifted her crimson gaze to the doctor, the intensity of her stare making the blond scientist feel like she was under an electron microscope. "Perhaps he needs..." she paused, looking for the right word, "a break?"

Ritsuko smiled at the girl from behind her cup. "Yes, a break. But you know that he won't take one on his own. Someone would have to be there to make sure that he doesn't over-exert himself. He's always putting others before himself, but I don't need to tell you this, now do I?"

Rei shook her head slightly, drinking more of the steaming pink liquid as her nemesis continued.

"He's quite a bundle of contradictions, Shinji is. I mean, he can be very indecisive most of the time, but sometimes he just bursts into direct action without thinking, doesn't he? He's done some rather rash things before, without thinking about how he could get hurt, but never for himself. Always for others. For another. Left to his own devices, I have no doubt that he will still try to help other people and make them happy." Ritsuko looked at her watch suddenly, setting her cup down. "Well Rei, it looks like it's time to start the download. Go ahead and get ready, and I'll finish up my preparations."

As the doctor went back to work, puttering around the various output monitors, Rei stripped and mounted the steps to the plexiglass tube that would soon be flooded with LCL, and in which her brainwaves, thought patterns and memories would be scanned, read and copied to vast databanks that sat overhead.

The course of action before her was as obvious as a ten lane highway through a forest, and her decision was reached far before the eight hours that the tedious process took. This was fine however, for she had other things on her mind besides Shinji.

Rei closed her eyes, and thought hard about the train that ran it's endless loop around an empty Geo-Front bathed in the light of a permanent sunset, switching from halogen lit tunnels to reflected yellowish orange light that bathed the underground cavern. She thought about the train, but she wasn't interested in attempting to board it from within the Machine today, although she would have to try it at a later date. She was much more interested in something that was considerably closer.

Red eyes opened again, peering through the orange liquid and the glass beyond it at the hazy figures that moved about. There seemed to be no discernible difference, but she was undaunted. She closed her eyes again, thinking hard, focusing. She opened her eyes again, trying to see through the lighted tank into the gloom beyond her petri dish. A white gloved hand coalesced out of the darkness to rap repeatedly on the tube, closely followed by the impassive visage of the Commander.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji woke up from his light doze as Asuka plopped down onto the couch, drawing her long hair, still slightly purple from the dye she had put into if for the Halloween party, up into a ponytail with a red scrunchie, holding a soda between her legs. She narrowed her eyes at him when she noticed him watching her curiously.

"What do you want, Third? Where's the First?"

"Ah, she's in the shower."

Asuka snorted as she turned on the television and began to flip through the channels. "I'm surprised that she didn't drag you in there with her."

Shinji turned bright red at the suggestion, but his cheeks were the only part of his body that saw increased blood flow, as he and Rei had a bad history with showers. It wasn't a situation that he daydreamed about, besides, he had much pleasanter memories of the pair of them elsewhere in more titillating if stranger circumstances, such as in bed.

"Ah... that wouldn't... Uh, it wouldn't... Err..." Shinji stammered, before deciding to clamp his mouth shut and stare at the television. That was not a conversation he would have wanted to have with Rei, let alone his abrasive flatmate. He decided to focus his attention onto the television instead, wishing that he had his old SDAT, his faithful shield the world and all of his various worries and neuroses. Music was safe, comforting and right. It, alone amongst the chaos and uncertainty of life could be perfectly put to paper and then played out again and again. But now that he had been woken up, his mind ran back through the day's events, and certain conversations floated to the top like pond scum.

He watched her carefully, but not very surreptitiously, for a few moments before opening his mouth.

"Asuka, ah... well, have you... I mean, well, what I mean is-"

"Spit it out already Third! Jeez, no wonder you two hang out together. Neither of you can talk right." The girl shook her head as she took a sip of her soda before grumbling again. "Makes you wonder what the selection criteria is like if you two made the cut."

"Never-mind, it's not important. Sorry." Shinji apologized, causing the other pilot to roll her eyes.

"Gott in Himmel, just say it!"

Shinji swallowed nervously, incapable of running away from this conversation that was quickly escalating into a confrontation, which only made things worse for him.

"Well, you've kissed someone before, right?"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

It was lunchtime, which meant that the group of boys and Rei were clustered around a set of desks pushed together for the hour. Hikari was off running some errand or another for the teacher, and Asuka was eating with another coterie of girls and boys down in the cafeteria, so it fell to Toji and Kensuke to try to move the conversation along in between eating.

Shinji was eating as if he had a hollow leg instead of a missing one,his usually small appetite having been boosted by the new caloric demands of his rapidly growing body. Rei had made them sandwiches for lunch, and their friends had been morbidly shocked by the huge pile of plastic wrapped goods that had been stacked up in front of the boy. But the pile was decreasing at a steady rate, accompanied by several thermoses of milk.

"So Shinji, milk? I didn't know you were such a fan." Kensuke commented, before popping the top of another energy drink. "I don't drink that much of it, but lactose intolerance runs in my family."

To save her charge the trouble of answering, Rei spoke. "Milk is highly nutritional and is considered to be a vital source of easily assimilated minerals fats and proteins all required in large amounts by the human body, particularly during developmental stages, such as puberty. Numerous scientific studies have shown that those whose diets include increased amounts of milk develop stronger bones than those who do not." Pausing, Rei handed Shinji a fresh thermos. "Lactose intolerance, caused by the lack of lactase, the enzyme required to metabolize lactose, which is a sugar. Lactose intolerance is prevalent amongst Asians, but it does not run in the Ikari bloodline. His being a fan of it does not enter into it's presence as part of today's meal."

It was a testament to the adaptability of man that the boys were not thrown by the impromptu science lesson, being only one of a number of such lessons that Rei doled out every so often, whenever it seemed to suit her. Hikari had been after her to talk more, to open up, but no one had seen it coming when Asuka had been talking about one of the tests done with the Evangelions, and Rei had corrected her mathematics and science. Since that fight, Rei would now and again 'enlighten' their group with such tidbits.

Kensuke shook his head. "How about that. What about you? Does it run in your bloodline?"

Rei blinked, not expecting to be questioned so. Despite Hikari's (and Shinji's) supportive comments, it seemed that most of the time she was ignored, the others casually dismissing what was being said.

"I have no difficulties in metabolizing any manner of food."

Toji looked up from his own meal, another boxed lunch from the absent class representative. "But you're a vegetarian."

"That is because I dislike eating meat, not because my body lacks the capacity to break it down to derive energy from it." Rei looked pointedly at one of the empty energy drink cans that sat in a neat row in front of the bespectacled nerd. "Also, I would like to point out the folly of a 'calorie-free' energy drink. A calorie, or to be more accurate a kilocalorie, is the measurement of the energy used for nutritional purposes. What you feel when you ingest that concoction is not actually energy, but a chemically induced illusion."

**That** caused all three boys to stare at her. Scientific fact was one thing, but it was still rare for her to go so far as to offer her own opinion on something.

Shinji shrugged, and went back to his pile of food. Toji chuckled and waved to Hikari as she entered the classroom, making a beeline for them.

"Hi everyone. What'd I miss?" she asked, sitting down next to Rei.

Toji laughed again. "Ken's not actually getting energy from his energy drinks, and the Shin-man can metaba-something lactose. I think."

"Metabolize?" Hikari suggested, pulling her own bento box out of her bag, followed by a bottle of juice. "You're not lactose intolerant, Shinji?"

Shinji shook his head as he swallowed the last mouthful of sandwich. "I guess not. I've never really thought about it before." He picked up another sandwich, neatly unwrapping it. "Still, good to know, I guess."

Kensuke drained the last bit of energy drink with a flourish. "Well, I sure enjoy this chemically induced illusion." he quipped, lining the empty can up with it's brethren. "So Hikari, What'd the teach have you do?"

"Nothing too important." the girl replied, biting into a piece of cooked egg. "Just getting the trip request forms."

Shinji slowly unwrapped his last sandwich. "Trip request forms?"

"Yeah, for the winter class trip." Toji replied as he scrapped the last bit of rice out of his box. "I think we're supposed to go to Old Tokyo, aren't we?"

Hikari nodded. "Yeah, this year it's Old Tokyo. Everyone's excited about it." She frowned, looking the boy. "How come you didn't know about it? It's been discussed several times in class."

Shinji shrugged. He couldn't remember it ever coming up, but he had a habit of zoning out during class discussions that weren't actual lessons. Of course, he also zoned out during several actual lessons as well. He was not going to let the draconian class representative know about that, however.

"Must have missed them somehow. But it's not like it matters much, anyway."

Kensuke quirked an eyebrow at that comment. "NERV business scheduled?"

"I don't think that we'd get to go on a trip like that. What if an Angel attacked while we were gone?"

"It is highly unlikely that Pilots on the active duty roster will be permitted to go." Rei commented. "However, if you have not been returned to regular status before the trip, I foresee no difficulty in you being allowed to participate in such structured revelry. It is in fact one of the type of things that Captain Katsuragi would want you to do in order to further strengthen your social bonds with our classmates."

"I'm not going to go if you guys can't." Shinji protested, taking a large bite of his sandwich to stave off other conversation.

"Why not?" Kensuke asked, curious. He could guess at a handful of reasons why not, but he wanted to hear them from his friend.

"Well, Old Tokyo's mostly a beach resort. I'm bad enough at swimming normally, let alone with only one leg. What would I do? Besides, it wouldn't be fair to Rei or Asuka if I went and they were stuck here."

Hikari coughed nervously. "Um... Asuka might not know that she can't go. We went shopping the other day for stuff for the trip."

"What additional supplies would one need to acquire for such a trip?" Rei inquired, curiosity aroused. She had never been on vacation before, and the farthest she had ever been from Tokyo-3 was the Matsushiro site.

Hikari turned bright red. "A-ah... nothing much. Just some clothes, and other items." She stammered out, wishing that she hadn't said anything. She knew that Rei wouldn't get what she was saying, and it was a fair bet that the boys wouldn't either, but it was still embarrassing.

Hikari and Asuka had gone shopping the other day, and while they had looked at new clothes, the primary focus of the trip had been in the various swimsuit sections of the stores they visited. Old Tokyo was a beach resort destination, the ruined remains of Tokyo-1 and Tokyo-2 molded into a popular vacation spot for the working class by several entrepreneurial businesses. Where Tokyo-3's beaches were dominated by shipping docks and defensive emplacements, Old Tokyo had beaches of sparkling sand made from recycled concrete and brick from it's parent cities. Swimsuits were not often worn in Tokyo-3, at least not outside the various indoor pools.

Before Rei could further inquire about the shopping trip, Hikari was rescued by the bell, ringing to signal the end of lunch.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato looked across the table at Asuka. The girl's hair was slowly returning to it's normal red, but even it's copper sheen was overpowered by the girl's face, flushed with anger.

"C'mon, Asuka, did you really think that we'd let the pilot corps go on vacation?"

"I got to go on vacation in Germany! Why not here?" Asuka huffed angrily. "Besides, it's not like the First or Third want to go, anyways. And it's just for a couple of weeks. You got by with just those two dorks before!" The two dorks in question didn't look up from eating. Shinji was just trying to avoid being dragged into the fight, but Rei was watching surreptitiously out of the corner of her eyes.

Misato groaned, already tired of arguing with the teenager. "You weren't on active duty in Germany, and we're not letting any of you out of our sight now that we've got you. You're just too important to the fate of the world. Look, if it's any consolation, I can't go on vacation either."

It was not any consolation, and Asuka made this clear, continuing to argue for the rest of the meal, before storming off to her room. Misato sighed again, slumping down in her chair, clapping a hand over her eyes in exasperation.

"Geez..." she muttered, before lifting the hand and looking at the other pilots. Shinji was trying to help Rei with the dishes, but the girl wasn't having any of it. "You two don't want to go on this trip?"

Shinji shook his head. "I didn't think that we'd be able to go anyways."

"I have never traveled on similar excursions with my classmates before." Rei offered, plucking a dish and cloth out of Shinji's hand and drying it herself, shooting the boy a slightly disapproving stare. Shinji sighed and scooted his chair back over towards the table and away from the sink, but Misato noted with a smirk that he kept sneaking glances over at the girl wearing his apron.

Rei had tied the white apron tightly over her school uniform, and Misato had to admit that the effect was quite fetching. The girl had taken to wearing it when cooking or cleaning up after meals, not wanting to get her uniforms dirty. It seemed to the woman that they seemed to be the only clothing that the girl owned, apart from a few strange items.

The nurse's outfit, for instance.

It had been the third day after Shinji had been taken off the active duty roster. Misato had come home late that evening due to another one of the endless meetings she had to attend. Asuka was drinking heavily, several cans of Yebisu already stacked up on the table, the girl watching her copilots with morbid interest mixed with disbelief.

Rei was wearing the uniform of one of the nurses from the Geo-Front hospital, and was busy taking Shinji's vital signs. The boy had looked up from the blood pressure cuff on his arm towards his guardian, unable to say anything because of the thermometer in his mouth.

Misato had almost died as Rei, sensing the shift in the boy's attention, looked up at her as well. Unkempt blue hair spilling out from underneath the cap that sat perched on her head, hiding the earpieces of an actual stethoscope, the other end disappearing (along with one of the girl's hands) up under Shinji's shirt, no doubt pressed against his skin.

Misato's first thoughts were not on how surreal the scene was, but just how fast the poor boy's heart must have been hammering.

"Well, thanks again for the meal, Rei. You're getting to be almost as good as Shinji in the kitchen!" Misato said, changing the subject, but switching right back to it. "Don't mention it to Asuka just yet, but I am trying to see if we can work in a little break for you three. Nothing major, just a few days with nothing scheduled, so you can relax a little."

Misato shot a warning look at Shinji. "Of course, I would suggest that some of you buckle down and work on your schoolwork, especially since he's already not on the active duty roster. Don't think that I don't read your report cards."

A chagrined expression spread across the boy's features. "Yes ma'am." he softly muttered, his face red.

"Good boy!" Misato said cheerfully, before turning to Rei. "You know, you might want to ask Rei if she wouldn't mind tutoring you. She does very well on her tests, even if her homework scores are atrocious."

Rei didn't turn from the sink to look at her commanding officer. "Homework serves as a way to practice and reinforce what was taught in the lesson. I do not need the practice, so I do not do it."

_Besides, our attendance at school serves for socialization purposes only. What difference does it make if we pass or fail on an arbitrarily selected course of instruction? And what of the Second Child? As annoying as she can be about the formal schooling that she has had, there is no denying that she is far beyond the limits of the class. There is not even a pretense for further instruction being needed for her._

"You still should do the work and turn it in Rei." Misato offered. "The universities won't take that as a valid reason for not doing the homework assigned, even if you get accepted into one with the grades you have. You're getting seventies and eighties where you should be getting nineties and hundreds. That will make a big difference when it comes for you to apply for higher education."

Rei shrugged, but said nothing.

_If Shinji wants to play the game and improve on his schoolwork, then I will be more than happy to assist him in this endeavor. But I fail to understand the Captain's obsession with our continuing our education outside the Evangelions and NERV. Even if I am able to change things in the Commander's plans enough to ensure our survival, I doubt that we would need a college education. Depending on what exactly happens during Third Impact, it could be all done for nothing. _

Misato grinned as she watched Rei put away the last dish into the cabinet. It was obvious that the girl didn't agree with her, but to Misato it meant that either she was getting the hang of reading the still largely silent girl or that Rei was getting more expressive.

Her grin deepened as she watched Shinji watch his friend as she selected a damp towel to wipe down the surface of the table, clearing it of the last little bits of trash from dinner.

_Neat freaks, the both of them. But god only knows that me and Asuka aren't. I know I wouldn't bother to wipe down the table after dinner._ Misato dutifully lifted her beer from the table, allowing a pale hand to pass underneath, leaving only a little lemon-scented moisture behind. _They're so perfect for each other. But still... it's not good to be so quiet. They talk to each other more than anyone else, but clam up when anyone walks into the room. But it's cute how Rei wants to help him out. Being stuck on crutches like that has to suck. _

Misato went to drain the rest of her beer, but started coughing violently when Rei's elbow brushed the back of Shinji's neck as she passed behind him on the way back to sink, causing him to jerk forwards suddenly. Misato knew her handiwork when she saw it, as the blue haired girl was too precise in her movements and adverse to unnecessary contact to actually bump into someone.

After pounding on the table while trying to gain control over her breathing, Misato stood up. "Well, I'm going to go watch some television. Have fun you two." She winked lecherously at her ward, and was rewarded by him turning bright red.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka looked up from the notes that she was compiling on the effects of a male growth period on synchronization as her phone chirped, signaling that she had received a message. Flicking it open, she grinned as she read Maya's message.

**Off tomorrow afternoon. No tests scheduled. Want to get ice cream?**

They had only met a handful of times since the Halloween party, trying to keep their dalliance under wraps as much as possible, what with her security escort and the nigh omnipresent observation that the MAGI had over the city and Geo-Front. But they still found time and there were ways around the watchful eyes of men and computers, as they both put in more hours than was necessary in the various labs that revolved around working on the Evangelions.

While Asuka had sworn off chasing other men after a heated lecture that an extremely disappointed Kaji had given her after he walked in on her and a handsome (if not as brilliant as her) technician back in Berlin, deciding then that he was the only man for her, she did not regard her fun with Maya as 'cheating'. If half the stories that she had heard of the handsome man were true, he'd be the first to commend her, not that itwas important.

_Besides, it's not like we're in a regular relationship yet anyways. Until he decides to give in to the obvious, I can do whatever I want. _

She thumbed out a response promising to meet up with the technician, and then tossed her phone back onto the desk, turning back to the small notebook that was filled with information gathered on the subject of the Third Child. After a few minutes, she closed the book with a disgusted snort. She was tired of dealing with the Third, but for whatever reason her Sempai had some new interest in him, even going so far as to putting other tests and experiments on the back burner. While she had her own work to do, being the doctor's intern meant that when the doctor said to work on something, she had to work on it. But she didn't have to work on it right now. Today was Friday, which meant that the First was going to be sleeping over, which meant that she needed to take a shower now, before the rush on the bathroom began.

Grabbing her towel and robe, she flung them over her shoulder and went towards the kitchen, intent on warning the others to stay out of the bathroom. Rei had walked in on her one evening to brush her teeth, citing to the outraged redhead that there had been no notification of someone using the bathroom.

She passed Misato on the couch, who was already sleeping, with Pen-Pen slumped over on one side. Shaking her head, she passed into the kitchen, knowing that she would find the pair in there, as Misato had passed a moratorium on girls (but everyone knew that it was meant for Rei) being in Shinji's room unsupervised. Since both of them always dutifully obeyed orders, having as much will as a pair of marionettes, Asuka knew where to find them. She just hoped that they weren't doing anything perverted on the table.

She stopped in the doorway, finding, as she had suspected, the other two pilots. Shinji was sitting slumped over the table, head resting on his arms, while Rei stood with her back to the door, hands working on the boy's shoulders.

Both Rei and Shinji flinched away from the other when Asuka spoke, eliciting a knowing grin from the redhead.

"I'm going to take a shower. Don't walk in on me."

As she walked back to the shower, she wondered if she should record the event in the notebook, but decided against it. It wasn't relevant to his growth spurt in any way she could tell, and Dr. Akagi would only complain about intra-pilot relationships again.

But if the two were busy with each other, it kept them both out of her hair. She detested the way the boy was such a pushover, constantly apologizing for things and never standing up for himself, and Rei's silent obedience to everything that she was told by their superiors was just as bad. She never questioned anything, never evaluated the situation on her own. The only things going for the girl was that she could synchronize with the Prototype, and that she was the Commander's favorite. The only things that the boy had going for him was that he could synchronize, he was the Commander's son, and that he could shoot. Asuka didn't begrudge him his status as the 'expert marksman', having seen the time that he put in on the ranges at NERV, both in person and in the Evangelion simulator. But in all other parts of actually using the bio-mechanical war machines, he lagged far behind her. A high synchronization score meant that one could use the giant as if it was one's own body, but if one didn't know how to do that, how to move, how to fight, and how to think, it meant nothing.

She had seen that he had the highest initial synchronization score, but he was still far behind her. Rei was just behind him, and both were horrible on the battle field without someone telling them what to do. Granted, Rei would carry out her orders with a dogged tenacity, ignoring damage to herself and Unit-00, while Shinji, usually very skittish about getting close to the Enemy, tried to put his skill with the various projectile weapons to use. But they had problems seeing opportunities and taking the initiative.

But if she could coax them into taking the initiative more outside the Evangelions, perhaps they would shape up in there.

She smiled as she lifted her face into the streams of hot water, and whispered her motto, her chant, her catechism.

"All Glory to the Brave."


	26. Chapter 26

As usual, I own nothing.

A big thanks to Squire of Gothos for pre-reading everything again, and likewise, I'd like to thank MoonishMan for acting as a soundboard for one of the scenes.

Evangelion Unit-00 sat perched, gargoyle like, atop one of the non retractable skyscrapers that dotted Tokyo-3, it's specialized core and frame designed specifically to support the weight of the combat machines. It turned it's head in synch with Rei as the sisters scanned the city for their foe.

"I have no contact with the target." Rei whispered, her voice even softer than it usually was.

**I can't see anything. Keep looking. **

Asuka, was prowling through the deserted streets below like a wolf padding through the woods. Hearing Rei's words, she grimaced. "Nothing? Try flipping your visual channels again, First. Switch to the Infrared spectrum, and if that doesn't work, try the Ultraviolet range."

"Roger."

Unit-00 switched over from the normal viewing mode into the infrared range without prompting from it's Pilot, causing Rei to quirk an eyebrow. Her sister's soul, the heart of the Evangelion, had been strangely eager to assist her over the past few days. They still did not speak much to each other, and Rei I was much more talkative than her younger sibling. Her remarks, while still often sarcastic, were no longer pointed barbs used to hurt and maim. Even though both were wary of the deeper bond that accompanied higher synchronization, Rei's synch score had nonetheless increased five points over the past week. Whatever had caused the change of heart was a mystery, but Rei was loath to upset the presumably fragile truce. It's terms were known only to Rei I, but Rei II noted that there had been no mention of the time that she had been spending with Shinji, something that was easy for Unit-00's soul to read with just a cursory scan of her mind thanks to the empathic link between Pilot and Evangelion.

**Still nothing. I'm switching to thermals.**

Rei nodded, aware that her acknowledgment would be sensed by the Evangelion as she looked from side to side, hunting for the Enemy. Captain Katsuragi's attempts to get the pilots some time off had been flatly denied, and so Rei and Asuka found themselves spending hours at a time in the simulator bodies, linked up with the cores of the Evangelions and running through different scenarios. Shinji, while still off the active roster, was not left out of the simulations, instead he was assigned the duty of "Assistant Operations Director". He had originally been told to just sit and watch in the background, but when he had asked for a more involved role, Dr. Akagi had told him to sit and learn from Lieutenant Ibuki. He was, however, unable to grasp the technical issues pertaining to her role, since he didn't know how to read the different monitors in relation to what they meant as a pilot.

So they stuck him to Misato's hip, with the hope that he would be able to develop his rather rudimentary tactical skills instead of his less than rudimentary technical ones. He and his guardian switched spots every other mission, him in command for one, and then watching and learning during the other.

They had been at it for three days now, and while he hadn't become a tactical genius, everyone noted that his self confidence had measurably increased. It could be heard in his voice as he spoke into his microphone from the training command deck, located just under the Prinbow Box, some fifty meters from where the girls sat in the skeletal simulation bodies.

"Asuka, move to Sector 24, Firing Position 13. Face out into the city. Rei, move to Sector 17, Firing Position 2, and face Asuka."

Asuka grunted in acknowledgment as Rei whispered hers, both pilots abandoning their current tasks and moving to their newly assigned spots. They would be set up on the extreme edges of the city limits, directly opposite of each other. Neither girl knew what the boy had in mind, but it had been drilled into them that when he was running one of the simulations, they had to obey him as they would Misato. Remarks on his orders' usefulness or where he could shove them were to be saved for the after action review.

"Unit-02 in position."

"Unit-00, ready."

On the command deck, Misato and Ritsuko watched Shinji like hawks. While the previous simulations had been fairly straight-forward, this time they had made the Angel undetectable, except that the MAGI had a Blood Type Blue reading within the city limits. So far, Shinji had let the girls take the lead in the hour long search for the Angel content to watch the screens and see what they were saying, but now he was leaning forwards in his seat, hands clenched in front of his face, unconsciously mirroring his father as he studied the screens before him. The resemblance was eerie.

"Form your AT Fields in front of you, like a wall, as wide as you can make them. When I say, start pushing them towards each other."

The screen overlay showed the twin fields forming up, held in front of their respective owners, spreading out across the city. Neither AT Field was strong enough to manifest changes visible in the normal light spectrum, but the MAGI's specialized sensors showed them as a softly glowing yellow light.

"Push."

Misato leaned in closer to her friend, nodding in approval.

"A trap. Very clever. He hopes that the AT Fields will at least show where the Angel is, if not hurt it or provoke some sort of reaction from it."

"Yes." Ritsuko tapped Maya's shoulder. "Maya, have the Third Angel materialize somewhere in the city along Auska's AT Field."

"Yes ma'am. Normal abilities, or one of the other programs?"

"Normal abilities. I think that this will be it for the day."

Maya nodded as she typed in a few commands into her console, calling up the program to insert Sachiel, the Third Angel, into the current simulation. This was the sixth simulation they had done today, and all three of the Children had preformed reasonably well.

Asuka cursed as the Angel popped into existence in the Eastern District, at the far edge of her AT Field. The Angel began running towards her, smashing it's way through buildings, it's abnormally long arms stretched out for her. There was a sudden flash in the eyes of the bone mask, and she collapsed her wall and immediately reformed it up around her in a tight dome as fire and light blazed from Angel to Evangelion.

Rei, seeing their quarry flushed out of hiding, likewise dropped her AT Field, and took aim with her rifle, sending a volley of high velocity tungsten cored depleted uranium shells at the green monstrosity. The shells ripped into Angel and buildings alike, sending everything they hit crashing to the ground. Dropping the empty weapon, Rei threw Unit-00 into motion, bounding through the city towards the Angel, which was already regenerating and healing the terrible wounds it had sustained.

Rei's bombardment was not meant to kill, however. It was to wound and to buy time. Time that Asuka put to good use, emerging unscathed from the energy attack, moving just as fast as her teammate to close in on the Enemy.

As she ran towards the Angel, now back on it's feet and raising it's arms towards her again, Asuka shouldered her own rifle and fed the creature another batch of rounds, but these were not the armor piercing rounds of Rei's rifle. Asuka carried rounds of white phosphorous, each one burning a brilliantly incandescent streak across the sky, slamming into the Angel and setting it ablaze.

Screeching, the Angel flailed it's arms wildly as it stumbled backwards, it's flesh healing, but only serving to cover the wounds and not actually ridding itself of the burning fire now trapped within the lime green body. It screamed it's otherworldly cry of pain as it burned again, this time from the inside, as the liquid fire sank it's way deeper into the bubbling flesh. Tossing aside her weapon, Asuka charged towards the Angel, her leaping stride making short work of the distance. She dropped her left shoulder and slammed into Sachiel's chest, sending it backwards, just in time to meet Rei in Unit-00.

Unit-00 threw itself into a forwards roll, coming up into a crouch just behind the Angel, tripping it up and sending it to the ground, where it continued to writhe in horrible agony as it continued to burn from the inside, smoke pouring out of the holes in the bone like mask. Both Evangelions loomed over it, heads cocked to one side as Shinji spoke again into his microphone.

"Finish it."

Progressive knives deployed from shoulder fins, each arcing out into the air, each neatly caught by a hand larger than a main battle tank. With a vicious grin and an expressionless face, Asuka and Rei fell upon their foe, the humming blades making short, brutal work of the Angel's already distressed flesh and healing factor. As Asuka reached in with her other hand to tug at the thing's arms as she dismembered it, Rei carved the glowing core from it's midsection with all the grace of a wolf ripping flesh from a moose's flank. Blue blood and white fire poured out onto the street in prodigious amounts.

Rei stood, one arm extended, red orb in hand, her bloody knife swinging around to neatly skewer it. It's light faded, and the remaining carcass began to liquify, becoming a runny goo with the consistency of pudding, while the phosphorous burned into the concrete, etching strange designs in the man made stone.

Ritsuko tapped Maya's shoulder again. "End the simulation, and extract the Pilots. Have them meet us in conference room three."

Maya, looking pale, nodded as she began to shut down the simulation, her fingers flying across the keyboard to relay commands.

Misato helped Shinji to his feet, congratulating him as they made their way to the conference room for the last review of the day.

"You did very well today, Shinji. You've got a good grasp of things, and I really liked your plan for trying to find the Angel on the last mission."

Shinji nodded as he maneuvered his way into the elevator, leaning up against the side wall.

"It wasn't showing up on any of the regular sensors, so I thought maybe it was using it's AT Field to make itself invisible somehow. We always see something when AT Fields touch each other, so I figured that it would show up if it got hit."

"AT Field RADAR then, huh? Pretty neat."

Ritsuko shook her head. "To make itself truly invisible it would have to perfectly bend light around itself. Had it done that, it would not have been able to see outside its little shell, so it wouldn't be able to operate normally in any case. And that's not how RADAR works, Misato."

Misato rolled her eyes. "Whatever." Turning back to her ward, she nodded. "After this review, you three are free to go. However," she said in a firm tone, "I'd suggest working on studying. You don't have to do it at home, if you want a change of scenery," her voice growing lighter again, "You spend too much time cooped up there anyways."

Shinji glumly nodded.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka liked swimming. It was a good full body workout, and was easier on the body than other aerobic exercises, such as running. In addition, she was well used to the sensation of being submerged in liquid, although she had to remember that she couldn't breath under water.

It was also probably the only thing that she liked doing by herself, the isolation of being underwater being the only isolation that she found bearable. This was not to say that she minded having company while she swam, but she also didn't care if there was anyone there or not watching her, not paying attention to her.

So it didn't irk her at all when she surfaced to find her teammates still huddled over Shinji's physics textbook with their backs to her, not even twenty feet away. It didn't even upset her that the boy hadn't commented on her new swimsuit, the one that she had selected specifically for the effect that she knew it would have on men, the one that she had been looking forwards to wearing on the beaches at Old Tokyo, flaunting her European heritage. She knew who the boys stared at the most during gym, and why.

So, instead of trying to draw their attention with some caustic or witty remark, with a few kicks of her powerful legs, she swam over to the edge of the pool, listening as Rei quietly tried to explain one of the lessons to the equally quiet boy.

"Now, as the object heats up, the particles that comprise the object's mass begin to move more and more, as the temperature increases. This causes the volume of the object to expand, as the space between particles expands. This concept is called Thermal Expansion. An easily noticeable example would be of concrete, which visibly contracts in cold temperatures, and expands again in warm ones. This causes cracks to form in the concrete. The effect of thermal expansion is not as noticeable in other substances, depending on the object in question. However, there is an interesting exception to this rule; pertinent to our work in the kitchen. Water expands as it freezes, instead of shrinking. This is due to the structured formation of the ice crystals, which causes the volume to increase, making a mass of ice less dense than a similar mass of water. This is what allows ice to float."

Asuka, having exited the pool and silently crept up behind the pair, grinned, watching them slowly, unconsciously leaning in closer to each other as the lesson progressed. She threw her arms around Rei, clasping her hands to the albino girl's breasts, cupping them through the one piece swimsuit she was wearing. Rei froze immediately, going stock still at the sudden and unexpected physical contact.

"Practical exercise," Asuka began, her voice as smooth as silk and just as sultry, "if I warmed up Rei's breasts, would they expand, or contract?"

Shinji sputtered, his face turning bright red, just as Rei's was turning pink. Asuka, disappointed that the boy wasn't answering her coherently, released Rei from the embrace as she began to slightly tremble in her arms. Not having gotten the reaction from either that she had expected, she sighed and shook her head.

"Such a boring pair of nitwits." Asuka said disappointedly, and turning, she stalked off back towards the pool sliding back in underneath the water, delighting in the sensation as she sank down towards the bottom.

_Well that was a colossal failure. I would have thought that he would have said something, at least. Her, not so much, but he should have said something. I mean, really! His idiot friends would have killed to see that. They won't believe him when he tells them about it later. What a boring little boy. Has he even put my advice to use and kissed her yet? Probably not. _

To say that she had been startled by the Shinji's question the week prior was like saying that the sun was hot. She had almost lost her temper until he had managed to spit out an explanation, which had in turn made her lose her composure, literally falling off of the couch and rocking back and forth on the floor laughing. She had laughed so hard she had cried, and the wounded expression that the younger boy wore was just as funny.

Once she was able to breath properly again, she climbed back up onto the couch. Yes, she had kissed before. Yes, it was easy to do, and it was fun. She had given him a few tips, but hadn't offered to coach him. She had an idea that even if he would be able to respond to such an offer coherently, he would turn it down. That had been the last of it, but try as she might, she hadn't caught them kissing, and she hadn't seen any change in their attitudes or general demeanor to suggest that they had done so on their own. She doubted that Rei had ever kissed anyone before. She had seen them hugging and cuddling on occasion, such as at the costume party, which was more than she would have expected from either of them, to tell the truth.

She shook her head and blew out a few bubbles of air, watching them rise up towards the surface of the pool. Not wanting to surface and see or hear the two just yet, she decided to see how long she would wait underwater. Her personal best was five minutes and ten seconds, but she hadn't tried it for a while and was out of practice. She loved being the master of her own body and mind, being aware of her limits and surpassing them, and to that end she was constantly working herself, pushing herself just that much harder in the quest to be the best at anything and everything that she tried.

Closing her eyes, she started to concentrate, counting out the seconds in her mind. She opened her eyes at two minutes, starting to feel the burn as her lungs screamed for sweet oxygen, and jerked backwards in shock, more bubbles escaping her mouth as she was greeted by the sight of Rei floating silently in front of her, a disapproving cast to her features. Rei pointed upwards with a finger.

Asuka smiled and shook her head.

_You want to talk to me? Then you can wait, Wondergirl. _

Asuka swam away from the girl, gliding smoothly through the water. She turned her head to one side, and a thrill ran through her as she saw the stoically silent girl swimming behind her. Asuka surfaced for a quick breath of air, relishing the sensation, and then dove back under almost immediately, swimming towards the far side of the pool. She kept an eye on her pursuer, and then it became a race after the redhead noticed that Rei was easily keeping up with her.

Back and forth the two girls swam, racking up laps in the Olympic-Sized pool. Both, seemingly tireless, were content to chase and be chased, the blue haired girl always just behind the redhead, no matter what direction she chose to change to next. It did not escape Asuka's notice that Shinji was nowhere in sight when she surfaced, the enormous room completely empty save for them.

_I wonder what that means. I would have thought that Rei would have left with him. It's not like he can exactly run away, now is it? _

Asuka's mental musing was rudely interrupted as Rei reached out with a pale hand to seize one of her ankles. Asuka reflexively kicked back, but Rei held on, and caught her other foot with her free hand.

Both girls sank to the bottom of the pool as they struggled silently with one another, fighting for dominance, a jumbled mass of limbs swirling around in the water, each ignoring their bodies' call and need for oxygen. Neither girl wished to yield to the other.

Asuka and Rei glared at each other on the bottom of the pool, Auska's long red hair fanning out behind her, while Rei's messy bob floated around her head like an azure halo. Growing tired of the whole thing, Asuka shook her head and pointed towards the surface. Rei didn't react, other than to release her hold on the German pilot, pushing herself slightly backwards but remaining in arm's reach, watching to see if her teammate was trying to trick her. Asuka shot up to the water's surface, sucking in deep breaths of air as she treaded water. Rei surfaced almost directly in front of her.

"What was all that about, First?" Asuka asked, pushing away from the irritated albino.

"Why did you do that?" Rei responded, her voice as quiet as usual. Her crimson eyes were hard, however, showing the emotions that Asuka knew the girl had, but for some reason hid.

"Why did I do what? Swim away from you? I didn't like the view."

"Why did you attempt to molest me when I was giving Ikari a block of instruction on the assigned Science homework?"

Asuka frowned for a second at the other girl's pronunciation of the word science. It was subtle, but there was a definite difference. But the redhead pushed it out of her mind, deciding it wasn't important.

"I was providing an applicable example." She said, her voice arch. "One that was **hot**."

"I already gave several examples on the subject. I did **not** need your help."

"No, you gave two **boring** examples. What you should have been doing was flirting with him, you idiot! Boys and girls don't actually study together! They study each other! Mein Gott, what is wrong with you?" Asuka groaned suddenly as realization struck her, rolling her eyes at the other girl's slightly befuddled expression. "You've actually been studying with him each time, haven't you? Every. Single. Time."

"That is the purpose of a tutoring session, Pilot Soryu. For one to instruct, and one to learn."

Asuka shook her head, not wanting to believe what she was hearing.

"You're not human. Neither of you. He hasn't done anything, has he? He hasn't made a move at all. I could have stayed home all those times, and neither of you would have complained. You weren't doing anything at all besides studying. Nothing else, what so ever, huh?"

Rei blinked, and then slightly cocked her head to one side. "This is another one of your assertions that Ikari is perverted, is it not? He is not a pervert."

"Wondergirl, you wouldn't know perverted if it was given to you all tied up with rope and ribbon on a silver platter." Asuka turned from Rei and began swimming to the pool's edge. "Where did he go off to? I would have thought that you would have gone with him."

Rei quickly followed, likewise climbing up out of the pool. "He was upset, and embarrassed. I presume that he went home. I remained to discuss this with you."

"Well Wondergirl, I'm done discussing things with you. You two have to be a pair of the most boring people on the planet. I mean, what the hell-" Asuka stopped in mid sentence as Rei moved around in front of her, eyes flashing, obviously not ready to end their discussion. "What?"

"I was also embarrassed."

"Well woop di doo, princess! Nobody cares!"

"I do." Rei's hand shot out, as quick as a mongoose striking at a serpent, grasping the center of Asuka's bikini top. She jerked it forwards as she pushed back on the redhead with her other arm, ripping the top off the girl as she fell backwards into the water. Asuka shrieked as she fell, arms windmilling as her balance went haywire. When she surfaced, there was no sign of Rei, her top, or of any towels.

"Oh, it is **on**, Wondergirl." Asuka muttered darkly.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

When Misato walked in the door to her apartment, she knew that something was wrong. Both Rei and Asuka were sitting on the couch, not looking at either of each other, the redhead watching the television and the blue haired albino reading, which was normal, but the air seemed charged, the hair on the back of Misato's neck standing up as if an electrical current was being fed into the atmosphere. Shinji was nowhere in sight, but the rare sound of him playing his cello could be heard. While Misato was no connoisseur of classical music, European or otherwise, she thought that it sounded okay, but she was worried anyhow.

Shinji did not often practice when other people were in the apartment, even before Asuka had moved in. When pressed as to why that was, he'd just look sheepish and mutter something about not wanting to bother anyone with it. When he was playing it when other people were around, it was a good sign that he was upset about something and wanted to add another barrier between him and the world, beyond that of his door and his headphones.

Misato crossed her arms and stared at the girls, neither one showing any signs of discomfort at the added scrutiny. Rei calmly turned a page in her book, while Asuka flipped through the channels with the remote.

"Is someone going to tell me what's going on?" Misato asked, leaning up against the wall.

"Nothing's wrong, Misato." Asuka answered brightly, not taking her eyes off the television. "I'm just watching some television, Wondergirl's reading a book, and the Third's butchering Bach."

"Ikari is not butchering Bach. It is a reasonable rendition of the Cello Suite One."

"Is that so, Wondergirl? Are you an expert on classical music as well as physics, then?"

"His playing is within acceptable deviational limits from professional recordings."

"Which you've studied at length, I take it."

"No less so than you."

"How would you know?"

"Your file shows that you have no predilection towards the 'creative arts', such as music, creative writing, drawing, or cooking. These are apparently beneath your notice, having no place among such interests as Meta-Biology, Chemistry, and Mechanical Engineering."

"You needed to read my file to figure that out? I don't need a piece of paper to tell me what's wrong with you: Boring, no drive to accomplish anything, is a teacher's pet thanks to a photographic memory, excels in nothing. A robot."

"You are referring to an eidetic memory, and I do not have one. I am also not a pet. I am also not a robot."

"Add 'takes everything literally' to that list." Asuka got up from the couch and walked over to the DVD player, looking at the stack of disks that sat next to it, trying to find one to watch, ignoring both the other girl and her commanding officer.

Misato had watched the verbal sparring with raised eyebrows and an unamused expression. She sighed, and pointed to the front door.

"Okay, both of you get your shoes. We're going for a ride."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji lay on his bed in his room, the door closed and the lights off, staring at the ceiling. He hadn't been able to say anything to Rei after Asuka's little 'example', and he hadn't been able to think of anything except how hot the two of them had looked, with Asuka nuzzling Rei as she groped her. Ashamed, unsure as what he was supposed to do or say or even feel, he had scrambled for his crutches, and had gotten out of there as fast as possible, hoping that Rei wouldn't follow him, fully aware that he couldn't hope to outrun her. It was obvious that the sight had turned him on, but how was he expected to react in a situation like that?

Once he had made it to the elevator without being pursued, he had breathed a sigh of relief, and continued his way home. His security escort had been waiting for him, fully aware that he had fled from the pool, and drove him back to the apartment, unwilling to let him hobble home on crutches by himself.

He couldn't stop thinking about the two girls.

He had shut himself up in his room, but he could only stare at the ceiling. He still hadn't replaced his SDAT, and so had no means with which to fill his ears and mind with music, to drown out the rest of the world.

He couldn't stop thinking about the girls, his teammates, his friends. He especially couldn't stop thinking about the way how the plug-suit sharply defined Rei's backside, and her front.

They were all partners in NERV's venture to save the world. They worked together, they went to school together, he even lived with one of them.

Both of them were also hot. Water dripping off of Asuka, trailing down the curvature of Rei's body, Asuka's hands flexing slightly as she squeezed Rei... The sharp contrast of the paleness of Rei's flesh to the slight tan Asuka had, red hair spilled over blue, the way that Rei's crimson orbs had snapped wide open as Asuka held her, staring ahead at nothing as her pink blush flooded across her alabaster cheeks...

It was one thing to be attracted to Rei, Shinji reasoned with himself. That was normal, she was beautiful. And the way she had moved that night, on their second date. The way her hips swished back and forth... It also helped that he was more than a little sure that she was attracted to him. But this couldn't be right, could it? He was wronging them somehow, thinking of them like this. And Asuka, well, she looked good too, right? But she definitely didn't want him thinking about her like this. Did Rei?

Rei stood before him, still damp from the shower, drying her hair with a towel. Every single line, every curve of her body was etched perfectly into his mind, just as the way her breasts moved when her arms dropped to her sides as she approached him. Rei, lying underneath him, clear crimson eyes staring up straight into his, his hand closed around one breast, the other propping him off the ground as he straddled her.

He couldn't stop thinking about her. Hormones waged their war against reason, each fighting for supremacy. The battle did not last for very long. When he was finished, he flopped back down onto his bed, staring at the ceiling again, feeling even worse about the whole thing than he did before.

Bereft of his music, unable to push the whole situation out of his mind, he rolled over onto his side, staring straight ahead, when his eyes fell on the shape of his cello case, propped up in the closet. Maybe he could drown out his thoughts with it, and with them he could lose himself in the music...

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Both Rei and Asuka sat in the back seat of the blue death trap, each one gripping the emergency handle above their seats so tightly that their knuckles were a bloodless white. Misato of course had no issue with her driving, despite that it could only be described as 'reckless' and 'homicidal' in nature. It seemed to the girls that the woman didn't even notice the other vehicles on the roads, at best treating them like scenery, or obstacles to be avoided.

"Now, I try not to impose too much on your private lives, other than what's absolutely necessary. Your lives are already messed up enough in my opinion. But I'm not stupid, and I don't like being lied to. Something's up, and you two are going to tell me what. I'm not going to let my pilot corps destroy itself from the inside out. You two just started working really well together, so somebody had better start talking. Otherwise," she continued, her voice growing cheerfully manic, "we're going to keep driving around Tokyo-3. Anyone feeling like talking yet?"

Watching both girls in the rear view mirror showed that both of them wore similar expressions, each one tight lipped and full of resolve. Misato shrugged and settled into her seat, focusing back onto the road.

She had been commissioned in the JSSDF's Armor Corps, and her first assignment had been as the platoon leader of a tank platoon. She had put the men and women under her command through their paces, and had earned a reputation among the unit as a group of speed demons. There was speculation that she had originally been assigned to the Air Corps, as fighter pilot, but they didn't have a plane fast enough for her.

Of course, as even the slowest of the JSSDF's fighter craft were much faster than the Type 98 MK III Main Battle Tank, it forced one to ask why Lieutenant Katsuragi had been assigned to the fifty-four ton behemoths. It was a question that she refused to answer, with a tight smile and a shake of her head if she was in a good mood, and blistering string of curses if she wasn't.

She had extensive time at the 'wheel' of a tank going over ninety kph, putting it through maneuvers that others swore that she shouldn't be able to do. Dealing with a tiny sports car going almost one hundred and fifty kph was something that shouldn't be related at all, but Misato handled it and the environment around her with ease. She wasn't a bad driver. A bad driver would have crashed already.

Misato liked driving. She liked cars, and she liked engines. She had helped the mechanics work on the eighteen hundred horsepower engine of her old tank, until her NCOs had asked her to 'kindly butt out of enlisted business'. But she was the only one who got to touch the engine of her Renault Alpine, and she knew exactly how much she could push her baby.

So she drove, taking turns and curves, speeding up and down the various roads of Tokyo-3, fully aware and enjoying the fact that Section-2 had given up on trying to keep up with her on the ground and instead had a helicopter following them.

After about five minutes of tearing through red lights and stop signs, Asuka felt that she had had enough of the current madness. "Oh, for Gott's sake, Misato, nothing's going on! We went swimming after the exercises, and Shinji left early to be by himself. He was playing his stupid cello when we got home."

Misato moved into the oncoming lane to move past a much slower car, before sliding back over into her lane, ignoring the panicked honking of the truck she had neatly avoided smashing into head on.

"Rei? Anything you'd like to add?"

"No."

"So Shinji just decided to hole up in his room, playing the cello. And you don't think that this is weird?"

Rei looked out her window, watching the landscape rush by in a blur. "He was playing when I returned to the apartment, and would not answer me when I knocked on his door."

Misato's phone rang, it's jaunty tune somewhat incongruous with the mood of the vehicle. Not bothering to take her eyes off the road, Misato fished her phone out of her purse, snapping it open with a flick of the wrist.

"Hello? Oh, nothing's wrong. Just having a heart to heart with the girls. Really? Mmhmm. Well, I suppose so. I mean, I can see it that way. Alright, alright. But you owe me one, remember this."

Misato snapped the phone shut and tossed it onto the front passenger seat.

"That was the Section 2 Liaison Officer. Nice boy. Wants me to take our discussion outside the city limits."

"But we already told you what happened!"

"Asuka, while I doubt that it would take much to send Shinji to hide in his room, I also doubt that he would leave Rei for some 'alone time'. What's more is that I doubt that she would let him out of her sight. What happened to not letting him 'over-exert' himself, Rei? You haven't let him do so much as dry the dishes while you're around."

"We were done studying, and I wanted to swim. He does not like swimming."

"And he just decided to leave? Instead of watching you cavort around in a swimsuit?" Misato's voice was incredulous. She knew that the boy avoided staring at her or Asuka at home, even when they were dishabille, but this was a little much to swallow. He was still a boy, for crying out loud.

"A one piece swimsuit." Asuka snickered under her breath, earning a glare from Rei.

"It has more structural integrity than a two piece outfit."

Asuka only glared back at Rei, her blue eyes flashing with anger.

Misato floored the accelerator again as they left the city, heading up into the mountains, on the road to the Matsushiro Testing Facility. The sudden acceleration pushed the girls back into their seats.

"You know, all I need to do is call him back and ask him for a report on you three. I hope it doesn't come to that, though. I can treat you like adults, or I can treat you like kids. What's it going to be?"

Her question was met with brooding silence. Misato smiled as she watched the girls in the rear view mirror. Her voice lost it's hard edge and became bright and cheerful when she spoke again.

"You know what? I think that I'll just ask Shinji. No need to bring Section 2 into this."

She was rewarded with two pairs of eyes widening suddenly as she reached for her phone. Obviously, there was more to this than what the girls claimed, if they didn't want her to phone the boy.

It was Asuka who decided to act, uncertain of how Misato would ask her questions, and uncertain of how Shinji would answer. She was also not confidant in Rei's ability to salvage the situation satisfactorily.

"Okay, okay. You win." she said grudgingly, "We had a little fight, and Shinji ran off. But nobody got hurt, and we're all hunky dory now. Isn't that right, First?" Asuka shot a flat look at Rei, jerking her head in Misato's direction.

Rei nodded uncertainly before answering.

"Yes. Everything is... hunky dory. The issue was resolved... acceptably."

"So it's over?" Misato asked disbelievingly.

Asuka brooded silently.

_Like hell it's over, _she thought furiously. _If Wondergirl thinks that she can get away with that stunt, she's dead wrong._

Rei's thoughts ran parallel to Asuka's.

_The probability that the Second Child will not attempt some sort of 'comeuppance' is nil. Based on observed habits and her psyche profile, there will be some sort of retaliation. Even so, if she reacts within reason,_ _I should be able to deal with her with a minimum of effort. If she reacts without reason, our superiors will undoubtedly punish her far more severly than I ever could._

"Yes." Both girls answered in perfect unison, one in an earnest tone, the other tonelessly.

Misato began to slow the car down, pulling over to the side of the road. Throwing it into neutral, she set the parking brake and shut the engine off.

"Outside."

Uncertain as to what was going on, both girls unfastened their seat-belts and exited the car, each taking some comfort in the fact that they were no longer hurdling along the twisting road at breakneck speed. Below them in the valley, the millions of lights of Tokyo-3 glittered in the early dusk.

Misato leaned up against the guard rail, looking out over the city, picking out their apartment building in the Northern District, some distance from the central block of the city, which was laid out in the shape of a crucifix.

"So, if things are hunky dory between you two, there won't be anymore fighting then, right? I won't have to worry about you three getting into it like children, right? I won't have to restrict your movements and activities, and I won't have to ask Section 2 for reports on your behavior when I'm not around, right?"

Both girls shook their heads in unison, but Asuka spoke for both.

"No, Misato. You won't."

Misato slowly nodded. "Come here, you two," she said, waving them over to the guard rail. "Tell me, what do you see?"

"Tokyo-3. Why?" Asuka responded, gripping the rail with both hands as she looked down the steep incline.

Misato ignored the girl's question. "Rei, what do you see?"

"A city. A human creation."

"Do you know what I see, girls? I see all of the people who depend on us. I see the whole world, down there in that valley. Every single one of those lights is a family that needs our protection from the bastards that attack us. We can't use normal weapons against the Angels. That's why we have the Evangelions. That's why we have you."

Misato turned away, looking out over the city once more.

"I know it's not fair. There's so much that we put on you, but you are all special. You can do what nobody else can. You can protect them.

Because of you, they can sleep at night. They don't have to worry that some giant monstrosity will come and end the world, to rip their families apart." She turned to face her charges once more.

"You are the defenders of humanity. Think about what that means, girls."

Misato turned and went back to her car, sliding inside. Rei and Asuka turned to follow, but stopped where they were when they heard the click of the locks engaging. Misato rolled down her window, looking out at them.

"Think about that on the walk home. Section 2 won't be giving you a lift either, unless it's an emergency." Misato said, pointing to the dark shape of the helicopter high up in the sky. "I'll have some food out for you for when you get back. Oh, and girls? You had better be sure that there aren't any unresolved issues when you do get home."

Misato rolled the window up, and in a deft maneuver, spun the sports car around on the road, and tore off back towards Tokyo-3, leaving the flabbergasted pilots behind.

As Asuka stood there, hands balled into fists, her mouth hanging open in shocked outrage, Rei quietly commented on their situation.

"That did not go as planned."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji looked up at his clock as he heard the apartment's front door open. The glowing numerals showed that it was just past three in the morning. Miss Misato had interrupted his playing when she got home, forcing him from his room to eat dinner with her; she had picked up a fair amount of take away from one of the numerous noodle shops on her way home. He was glad that she did; he had lost track of time and neither of the girls had come home yet, which meant that there wasn't anything else prepared for dinner.

Misato hadn't asked where the girls were, which was good, as Shinji didn't know. But he noticed that she didn't seem to be that worried about them. He wondered if the noise was the girls getting back, dread and uncertainty filling him. What was he supposed to say? How could he explain fleeing from the pool?

Grabbing his crutches, he hobbled out of his room to the living room, and then came to a dead stop, the hesitant greeting dieing on his lips as he saw the state his team-mates were in. All of his worries and concerns vanished instantly as he stood there in the dim light staring open mouthed at the girls.

They were both filthy, for starters, almost head to toe with dirt, Rei's school uniform heavily stained. Asuka's blouse was missing a sleeve, the frayed fabric showing where it had been ripped off. Both smelled heavily of dirt, sweat and blood, actual, fresh blood, and not the residual stink of LCL. Rei had a black eye and her upper lip was split, as well as boasting a set of scratches running down her left cheek that could only have been caused by fingernails.

Asuka looked no better, however, her blue eyes bloodshot, with dark rings underneath them, a clear sign that her nose had been broken. She walked with a slight limp, and her long hair was tangled and knotted, with bits of grass and leaves still stuck in it.

But as strange as this sight was, stranger still was the fact that both Rei and Asuka were leaning on each other for support, and each wore an ambivalent expression.

"Rei? Asuka?" Shinji asked hesitantly, watching them as they gingerly removed their shoes, "Is everything alright? What happened?"

"We come traipsing in here at three in the morning, beaten black and blue, and he asks if we're okay." Asuka snarked, shaking her head, the nasal distortion to her voice confirming the broken nose. "You're really something else, Third Child." Asuka released her grasp on Rei, and limped past Shinji. "I'm going to take a shower."

Shinji's attention barely shifted from Rei's bruised face as Asuka moved past him. Rei looked up from neatly arranging their shoes, her eyes shifting from his back down to the ground.

"I desire food... did Misato leave out meals for us?" she asked quietly, shifting her arms around behind her back, grasping a scabbed elbow in a dirt-stained hand.

"Yeah... but you're hurt! You c-can't eat like that!" Shinji exclaimed, his voice raising an octave. "Come into the kitchen and sit down!" He turned and moved as quickly as he could into the kitchen, heading for the cupboard where he kept first aid supplies. A pale arm reached up over his shoulder to retrieve the kit for him, but he snatched it away. "Sit down, Rei!" Shinji said, more forcibly than he had expected. Shocked, Rei recoiled slightly, but sat down at the table.

Shinji set the kit on the counter, then he filled a bowel with warm water, awkwardly moving both items over to the table with one arm, using only one crutch to help him around. Sitting down next to Rei, he wet a napkin in the bowel, and started to gently clean Rei's face, his own features screwed up in worry and concentration as he focused on his task. Rei for her part sat quietly, both delighted and worried at his ministrations, feeling the slight shuddering of his anger through his hands as they moved over her face.

"Rei, w-what happened? Who attacked you? Why didn't Section 2 stop them?" Shinji asked quietly, the slight tremor in his voice overshadowed by the steeled resolve that ran through his words. "What did they look like? Where did you go?" He ran a hand gently through her hair, removing the remnants of a twig, dropping it on the table.

"No one attacked us, Ikari." Rei replied, her voice softer than usual, prompting him to lean in a little to hear her. "The Second Child and I had a difference of opinion."

"You what?" Shinji's left eye twitched violently.

Rei held up a hand, placing a finger against his lips to silence him. "It is fine. It is good, I think, that we did this. It cleared up several things."

Shinji took her wrist in his free hand, and moved it back down to her lap. Releasing it, he reached for the disinfectant. "This is going to sting a bit," he warned, wincing in sympathy as he sprayed the scratches on her cheek, even though Rei didn't flinch. "There's not much I can do for your lip right now, but the best thing to do is stay hydrated and use a good chap-stick to protect it as much as possible." He gently turned her head to one side, inspecting her eye, swallowing hard. "We'll want to put some ice on that to keep the swelling down, as well as taking some ibuprofen. I don't know how we'll explain this to Miss Misato, but-"

"She already knows." Rei interrupted, reaching for the bottle of pills.

"She already knows?" Shinji repeated, his voice incredulous and strained. "She let this happen?"

Rei shook her head, recognizing the trembling in his arms and shoulders from the time that he had assaulted their classmates. "It's fine. This needed to happen."

"Rei, I... I don't want to see you hurt!" Shinji said, his voice warbling, trying not to shout, not understanding how calmly his friend was taking this. "Not by the Angels, not by anyone..."

Rei pressed a finger against his lips again, shushing him. "It's okay this time. I promise. I... I don't wish to see you hurt either." She smiled softly, the smile that she only ever showed two people. "Besides, I don't think Misato or the Commander would appreciate you further injuring the Second Child. She is our team-mate, after all."

Shinji swallowed anger and shame, both stemming from his inability to do anything in the situation, feeling helpless and hopeless. He hung his head, dejectedly looking at the miscellaneous medical supplies as Rei calmly dry swallowed several of the small anti-inflammatory pills with practiced ease. They sat in uncomfortable silence for a few seconds, and then Shinji reached for the liquid bandage tube, looking back at Rei's battered face.

"I'll cover the scratches with this before you go take a shower." he offered, unscrewing the cap, pulling the applicator brush out, checking to ensure that it was covered in the sterile goo. "Just be careful to not scrub your face very hard in there."

Rei nodded silently, holding her hands in her lap as she closed her eyes, again relishing the feeling of his fingers brushing over her face as he gently applied the bandage.

She opened her eyes to slits as she felt his hands stop moving, one hand still cupping her face, the other having vanished. He was sitting there staring at her, as still as she was, biting his lip either in concentration or worry, which ever it was, she couldn't tell. He still held the bandage brush in his free hand, resting on his leg.

Rei started to lean in towards him when Asuka limped into the kitchen.

"Oh, nice. We do have a first aid kit. I was getting worried when I couldn't find anything in the bathroom." the redhead commented, reaching up to gingerly touch her nose as she flopped down into another chair.

Rei pushed back away from Shinji, standing up. "I am going to take a shower." she announced, turning to leave, but pausing in the doorway, turning to look back at Shinji, still sitting at the table. "T-thank you, Shinji."

Asuka shook her head as she watched the two, rolling her eyes.

"So, Third, you going to play doctor with me, or what?"

Shinji's eye twitched as he turned to stare at her for a moment, his face otherwise a carefully neutral mask. He screwed the cap back onto the bottle, tossing it down onto the table. He grabbed his crutches, and hauled himself upright, and headed for his room.

"Play doctor with yourself."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Gendo looked up from his computer screen as Rei entered his office, answering his summons as bidden. Her black eye was a dark and ugly purple that transitioned into a sickly yellow at the edges, the colors in vivid contrast with her pale skin. He impassively watched her as she slowly crossed the cavernous room, coming to a stop just in front of his desk, hands clasped behind her, her face slightly downcast, her eyes fixated on her feet. They were, unusually enough, alone in the office, the Sub-Commander busy in a meeting with the Tokyo-3 civic leaders topside.

Gendo watched her in silence for a few minutes, his face unreadable. He leaned back in his chair with a small, disappointed sigh.

"Rei, I trust that this will not happen again."

Rei whispered an assent, never moving her eyes from the floor. It was obvious to the Commander that she had been dreading this moment. It was not often that he had to reprimand her. This time she didn't even have a semi valid excuse to explain her actions. Fighting amongst the pilots was not something that was supposed to happen, and he wouldn't allow it.

That was not to say that he didn't agree with his Operations Director's course of action. He was well aware of the cathartic effects of having an honest and physical difference of opinion with someone. But he could not allow his pilots the luxury of flat out brawling with each other, despite his first hand knowledge as to how it could bring them closer together, building a basis for friendship. Rei should have understood that, even if the others did not. But what was done was done, and so he would turn the event to his own ends and make the best of the situation. As his old mentor was inordinately fond of saying, one couldn't plan for everything.

"I trust that you gave as good as you got, yes?"

His question elicited a confused sound to emerge from Rei's lips, so soft that it was almost inaudible, as she looked up from the floor to the Commander.

"You are dismissed, Rei. Return to the locker room to prepare for the exercises that Captain Katsuragi has planned." he returned to his work, his glasses reflecting the light of his computer screen, masking his eyes.

Rei turned to leave, moving slightly faster, eager to be gone, when he called out to her.

"We will have dinner this Friday. Let me know where you wish to eat by Wednesday."

"Yes Sir." Rei responded without turning around, softly closing the door to his office behind her.

Shaking his head, Gendo stood and walked over towards the window, commanding the MAGI to set it's transparency to twenty percent. Squinting in the sudden light, he looked out over his inner kingdom, lost in thought.

It had been a few weeks since they had spent any quality time together, the last being a light lunch after the girl had finished the routine imaging scan and download. She had been deep in thought that day, talking less than usual, and only picking at the salad that had been served.

While he doubted that her altercation with Soryu's daughter was a cry for attention, having read the report of their spat at the pool, he regretted the fact that they no longer met weekly for a meal. Between dealing with the faster pace of operations with the return of the Angels (despite their own irregular schedule of arrival), dealing with SEELE, dealing with the UN, and sending her off to chase after his son, it seemed that there wasn't time anymore. The scenario demanded resources, and he had to deliver.

_Faith, _he thought irritably, _demands Sacrifice. But just because it's necessary doesn't make it any easier. Of course, if it was easy, it wouldn't be much of a sacrifice, now would it?_

He turned away from the window and moved back to his desk. He was reviewing the finalized plans for Unit-03, which was finally ready to be shipped over from NERV-France. Once it arrived, they would have three line ready units, and Unit-00 would be returned for use primarily as a testbed for new modifications once more. Thus, with the relatively simple task of installing a new core, he could have 4 combat duty preforming Evangelions at his disposal, circumventing the Valentine's Day Treaty.

As things currently stood, as the Evangelion had no core and no current pilot, it would be flown in to Japan from France, instead of being shipped over water. While it was unlikely that an Angel would manifest to attack the Evangelion, the UN was loath to risk a second shipment by boat. The fact that a large portion of their available fleet had been damaged or outright destroyed during the shipment of Unit-02 and thus was not available for escort duty played no small role in their decision. Long-range aircraft, however, they had in spades. Combining that with the availability of mid-air refuelers, once Evangelion Unit-03 lifted off from France, it should not have to touch ground again until it's delivery to the Matsushiro test site.

Once there, the core from Unit-00 would be removed, and then installed into Unit-03. Rei would then undergo the Activation test with it, and Unit-00 would be taken to the lower labs for storage and experimentation.

There was one slight hitch to the plan. The so called 'Judas Messenger'.

Gendo pushed his glasses back up his nose as he called up his notes and translations on the Apocrypha of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It had taken a lot of work for him to obtain translations of them, let alone actual photographs and copies of the original parchment and papyrus documents. SEELE did not like the idea of other people gaining access to the artifacts that explained, amongst other things, how to become a god.

He had come a long way from being a skeptical outsider, curiously looking over the notes of a friend to see if he thought what she was proposing was do-able.

The scrolls claimed that the 'Thirteenth of the Messengers' would be manifested in the 'Fourth Member of the Nephilim'. While they had not yet seen the rest of the Angels leading up to the thirteenth, that was no guarantee that they would not all show up before the arrival of Unit-03. While the scrolls stated that each Angel would show up by itself, there was no set time table, instead, it utilized a parable of a number of brides waiting for a groom, one who's coming is unknown and will not be when expected. They had to keep watch and be vigilant at all times, ready to fight whenever the next Angel appeared. So, while they still had a five more Angels to kill before the 'Judas' showed itself, that did not mean that they wouldn't show up within the space of five days.

The old men claimed that because the counting system used for the Evangelions began at zero and not one, there was no need to worry. Their confidence did not ease Gendo's worries, however. While they were certain that the traitor Evangelion would be Unit-04, he had to wonder if the Angels cared or even understood the difference behind the two counting systems.

With luck, the activation would go as planned. If not, well, there were contingency plans, including of course, the flat out replacement of Rei, should her current body perish.

Of course, he had other options. He could just as easily send instructions to his minions to engineer their own delays to the project. It would be a trivial matter to have Unit-03 delayed almost permanently, and while it would be harder (not to mention much riskier), he could even arrange for the Evangelion to be shot down during transport. The destructive capabilities of the strategic level weapons was well documented, even if the rest of the project remained shrouded in secrecy. Some countries might want to try to claim one of the limited number of Evangelions for their own use, believing (foolishly) that they could train one of their loyal soldiers in their use.

A weapon was useless without ammunition, and Gendo was the only one with the keys to the ammo dump, as well as the only one with access to the the means to make more.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka sighed as the virtual city flickered and reset, the blasted landscape shifting, pristine towers appearing where just moments ago there had been nothing but smoking wreckage.

"You know what I don't get?"

Misato's amused voice came over the communication net, obviously already having traded places with Shinji to take command of the next mission. "What's that, Asuka?"

"Well," Asuka began, starting to count off her points on one hand, "for one, we always assume that it's only ever one Angel, unless it splits itself into two, like with the Seventh. Why can't there be more than just one? Two, We're always in Tokyo-3. I mean, I **know** that we're limited by the umbilical cables and our five minutes of internal power, but we've fought outside the city before, with the Sixth. What happens if one shows up in, say, New York? What do we do then? Three, why are we always on the defense? You can't win a war that way. We have to find them and strike at their home, their base of operations."

"Those are all good points Asuka." Misato replied after a moment. "Good points that deserve to be answered, but now's not the time for that. No," Misato said, pausing a moment to let the suspense build, "Now is the time for CRAB BATTLE!"

Without further ado, a giant crab emerged from the waters of the Tokai Bay. Easily twice the size of the Evangelions when standing straight up, it was also three times as wide as they were tall. Water poured off in vast rivulets from it's massive carapace, encrusted with barnacles the size of basket balls. Two eyes, glowing a malevolent red, stood on thick stalks. Just underneath the thing's mouth sat it's core, shining with it's own infernal light.

As Asuka stood there gaping at the new opponent, Rei's voice came over the net.

"A crab that large would not be able to move. It would be crushed under it's own weight."

"It's an Angel, not a crab." Misato rebuffed her usually most dependable pilot. It wasn't like Rei to not get down to brass tacks, but then it wasn't like Rei (or at least, it wasn't expected of her) to break Asuka's nose in a fist fight either. "Now, get at him!"

Rei opened up a private sound-only channel to Asuka, the small pop-up frame on the redhead's HUD displaying a stock photo of the albino in her plug-suit, Asuka not having uploaded a photo of her own into the on-board system. "Pilot Soryu, I have a hypothesis."

Asuka rolled her eyes as she threw herself in to motion, slowly retreating from the giant crab as it advanced out of the water, snapping it's vast claws at the two Evangelions. "What would that be, First?"

"Captain Katsuragi has chosen a... nonsensical... opponent for the first simulation of the day under her command in order to show us that 'there are no hard feelings'."

"Sounds about right. That's something she'd do, no doubt about it." Asuka reached into one of the armament buildings and took out the missile launcher held within, taking aim at the base of the left claw. The 'Target Lock' tone sounded, and Asuka pulled back on the triggers in her butterfly yoke, and was rewarded with the roar of the two ton missile's solid state fuel igniting, flying out towards their foe.

The massive crab merely skittered to the side and caught the missile in it's pincher, where it exploded harmlessly.

"Seriously?" Asuka asked, hurriedly grabbing another missile from the building.

"It is not without precedent. The Third Angel caught a missile in a similar fashion during it's initial engagement with the JSSDF." Unit-00 was cautiously creeping along the rear flank of the crab, holding a progressive sword, a copy of the recently delivered shipment of arms from NERV-Moscow. Rei darted forwards, swinging the sword at one of the thing's legs, but was sent flying into a building when the crab side-swiped her.

"I think that Misato's trying to tell us something here, Wondergirl."

"We have already discussed that, Pilot Soryu. It was there are 'no hard feelings'."

Asuka sighed as she watched another missile get caught by the virtual crab and explode without damaging it in the slightest. "No, I think that she wants us to work together on this. You know, that whole teamwork thing she was going on about."

"What happens if we elect not to work as a team, and approach the issue singularly?"

In response to Rei's question, the city shook as two more crabs emerged from the water, their claws clacking ominously.

"Really, Wondergirl? You just **had** to ask, didn't you?"

"Asking questions is a valid means of data collection." Rei protested, darting away from an advancing crab. "And I was not the one who asked about why we have only faced singular targets up until the Seventh."

Asuka growled at both her teammate and at her target as her last missile was taken down. "Shut up and listen. I'm going to move to armament building..." she paused, checking her map, "35A, and get the MK II Positron Rifle. I'm going to need you to distract it while I line up a shot on it's core."

"It is one of three impossibly large crustaceans. How do you suggest that I distract it?"

Asuka grinned at the peeved tone Rei used. Obviously, the blue haired twit was just as annoyed by the whole situation as she was.

"Just figure something out, already." Asuka killed the channel, not wanting to listen to anything else the girl had to say.

Rei narrowed her eyes as she slipped behind one of the cover buildings, evading one of the crab's claws. The other crabs were moving up on the first one's sides, protecting it from any flanking maneuvers that she might try. Calling up her own map of the city, she started reviewing her options.

Tokyo-3 was designed and built to be a fortress. The streets were more than wide enough for the Evangelions to move about on, and of all the buildings that did not retreat underground when the city shifted into it's battle configuration, a large number were either armament buildings, or buildings designed to provide cover and firing points for the massive war machines. Yet more buildings provided additional umbilical cables, allowing the pilots freedom to maneuver around the city. All of this was faithfully recreated in the simulation environment.

Rei looked up at the tall structure that she sheltered behind, and a plan began to take shape. It was bold, outrageously insane, and under normal circumstances, she wouldn't even consider it. Right now, however, it seemed like a good idea.

Rei began to climb the building, pulling herself up to the top, the skyscraper affording her extra height over the decapods that had towered over her. Three sets of eyes turned towards her, claws clacking in her direction. Rei took a deep breath, and then jettisoned her power cable, and leapt off the top of the building, sailing past the upraised claws of the lead crab, to land on the top of the crustacean's shell.

Almost immediately, the Crab Angel reared, trying to dislodge it's passenger, it's claws unable to reach Unit-00. Grabbing onto one of the eye-stalks, Rei scrambled for purchase on the smooth, slick surface. Drawing her progressive knife, she slashed at the claws of the second Angel, and was rewarded with a a scream that was like the hiss of boiling water. Not giving up her hand hold on the eye-stalk, Rei swung back and forth as she defended against the other Angels. She willed open the communications channel again, this time not bothering to specify a 'Sound-Only' connection to Unit-02.

"Any time that you are prepared, Pilot Soryu," Rei said breathlessly, dodging another incoming pincher, a look of intense concentration on her face, "I believe that the Angel is fully distracted."

There was no change in the the redheaded pilot's expression, the girl focusing entirely on the task at hand, aiming the red sphere that was the Angel's weak spot. "Just a moment..." she said in a sweet sing song voice, and pulled back on her controls, taking the shot.

Blue light blazed forth in a short burst, burning through the distance between hunter and hunted, the electrons ionizing the air as they passed through it. The Angel had no time to react, it's core taking the full force of the ultra-high-energy beam straight on. The orb shattered under the assault, and the Angel reacted in the same manner as it's brethren.

Rei shrieked for a moment as Unit-00 was sent flying up into the air, propelled by the sudden and massive release of energy in the form of a giant blazing cross. The blast also caught the other crabs, and their cores also perished under the onslaught, in turn going critical and exploding.

The simulation flickered, and then reset itself instantly. Rei closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to reestablish her sense of balance as she went from tumbling through the air to standing on the ground.

The communications system clicked on, Shinji's voice filling her plug.

"Rei, are you okay?" the boy asked, the worry in his voice plainly evident. Rei knew that he was no stranger to the motion sickness the simulations could cause, having vomited once after a spectacularly violent session. His concern, while predictable and freely available for any that he met, still elicited a warm response in her cheeks and abdomen, and she liked to think that no matter how concerned he might be for the safety and welfare of others that she held the lion's share.

She was, of course, completely correct.

"I am fine, Shinji." Rei blushed harder now, at the second time that she had used his given name to address him. "I have experienced worse before." She paused, trying to think of what to say. "Thank you." She smiled softly at the pause that followed, sure that he too was blushing in the endearing manner that made her want to wrap herself around him and not let go.

"Ah, yes... um..."

_Yes, _she thought, biting her lower lip in pleasure, _he must he as red as Unit-02. _

Rei's smile quickly became a tight frown as Asuka's voice came over the net, as if the mental comparison of Shinji's complexion to that of the Evangelion had summoned her.

"Well Misato? How'd you like that? Was that enough teamwork for you?"

Rei leaned back in her seat, surveying the virtual city as Shinji coughed nervously. She knew instinctively that he was rubbing the back of his head with one hand. "Well, um, she's not here. She got called out in the middle of the fight."

"WHAT? What do you mean she got called out in the middle of the fight? When did she leave?"

"Umm... almost right after the beginning, actually."

"What." Asuka's voice was dangerously level, but still vibrated with the promise of pain and punishment. "What was that with the other crabs, Third? Was that your idea of a joke?"

Shinji's response was immediate, his voice rising suddenly. "S-she told me to do that!"

"You know what? Forget it. I'm done with this." Asuka said, her Evangelion putting it's hands on it's hips, reflecting it's pilot's attitude and mental state. When nothing happened, Unit-02 raised it's head to the sky as if searching for something. "Maya? Let me out, I'm not going to do this anymore today."

"Um... she's not here, either. I'm the only one in the control room."

Rei looked up now, her curiosity aroused. It was not like any of the technicians to leave their posts during the training events, and it certainly wasn't like them to leave someone untrained in the operation of the control room in there by themselves. Something was up, that much was certain, but at the same time it wasn't a threat, as they had not been scrambled.

_What is going on?_

**I don't know. The MAGI are busy and won't talk to me. I can't get into anything. **

_Is this why you've been quiet for the past half hour?_

**Yes. Something tripped all sorts of red flags, but no alarm has been issued. The MAGI barely paid attention to the last battle. You didn't notice that it was too easy?**

Rei opened her mouth to comment on the fact that the 'easy' battle consisted of them hanging off of a giant crab, trying to avoid two more such opponents, but closed it again, her brow furrowed in concentration. Despite the size and number of the targets, the threat had actually been rather low, the three Angels not attacking with much energy.

_What could it be?_

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kaji grinned at his three companions. Asuka, as predictable and exuberant as ever, was having a grand time, although it was obvious that she would prefer to be alone with him. Rei and Shinji were oblivious to it, however, as they kept shooting the other sideways glances as they ate. Despite the frequency that they flicked their eyes over to watch each other, their eyes never met.

After about twenty minutes of Shinji trying to figure out how to end the simulation and extract the girls from the simulator bodies, one of the on duty techs came in from the bridge accompanied by the spy to end the program and remand the Children into the care of the security agent.

Kaji and Shinji had then met up with the girls, and the unshaven spy explained that something had happened elsewhere that demanded the full attention of the regular command crew. They were released from simulator duty for the day, but were told to expect to return in the morning to continue training. Before leaving, Kaji told them that he would be treating them all to dinner, much to Asuka's delight.

That delight had dimmed somewhat when she found out just where they all were eating.

The noodle shop was a far cry from the romantic dinner that the girl probably had envisioned, but the food was good, plentiful and cheap. Thanks to his penchant for making friends, Kaji was a well liked regular, and the proprietor, a large man who obviously didn't believe in skinny cooks, made frequent trips to their table, bringing with him more and more dishes, taking an almost morbid delight in the fact that Shinji seemed to be a bottomless pit despite being so small, and the fact that the little blue haired girl kept trying to feed him more from her own plate.

"So you'll be staying over then?" Asuka asked, trying to capture the spy's attention.

"Oh, no!" Kaji laughed. "I'll just be keeping an eye on you while Misato's out of town. Besides," he said with a grin, "Misato would kill me if I slept in her room, and if I slept on the couch, where would poor Rei sleep?"

Asuka's face darkened for a moment, and then brighten back to it's original luminosity. "She can sleep in Shinji's room!"

"Hwa?" Shinji gasped, before starting to cough on a mouthful of noodles.

"Yes." Rei emphatically answered at the same time, bringing her full and undivided attention to the other two for the first time that evening.

Shinji's coughing fit got worse.

Kaji laughed, shaking his head. "No, no. I'd love to oblige," he said, winking in a familiarly lecherous manner at Shinji and Rei, "but I was given strict instructions to have you follow the same rules as normal."

"Well, you can sleep in my room then!" Asuka slyly protested, a hungry look on her face.

Kaji held his hands up in front of him, waving them in a placating gesture. "I couldn't impose on a beautiful young girl like that! No, I'll just have to sleep at my place, and swing by in the morning."

"But, Kaji~" Asuka protested, "if you don't stay over, how will you be sure that Ayanami here doesn't sleep with Shinji? You know that they will if you don't." Asuka shot an arch look at Rei, who glared back silently.

The spy leaned back in his chair, seemingly deep in thought. "Are you sure you won't mind, Asuka? Really? I do need to make sure that Misato's orders are followed."

Asuka nodded vigorously. "Oh, of course I don't mind." She winked at Rei before turning back to her prey. "These two are like rabbits whenever Misato's not around, you know." she said knowingly, but the self satisfied smirk on her face vanished as her face tightened up, her eye twitching slightly as Rei shifted slightly in her seat.

By electing to sit next to Kaji at the table, she had to sit across it from Rei.

Kaji nodded, either ignoring or having missed the act of under-table warfare. "It's settled then. I'll stay over tonight in your room, Asuka, Shinji here will sleep alone in his room, and you girls can share the large futon in the living room!"

"**WHAT?**" Asuka shrieked, her face locked in a look of horror, matched by an equally disturbed Rei.

Nobody noticed that Shinji was still coughing.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji listened in the dark to the even cadence of the older man's breathing. Despite what he had said at dinner, the agent had not actually elected to stay in Asuka's room, but had instead asked Shinji if he was okay with splitting his room for the night, a request that the boy had acquiesced to without much prodding, but it was not for the reason that both Asuka and Rei suspected. He had questions for the man who seemed to know his way around women.

"Something on your mind Shinji?" asked the man from the futon on the floor. There was rustling sound as he propped himself up on one arm to look up at boy. "You know that you can ask me anything."

"Well... um... you're good at talking to people, right?"

Kaji grinned as he settled back down on the mat, folding his hands behind his head. While it was one of the subjects he thought that the boy would ask about, it wasn't the one he thought the boy would have opened with.

"Well, it's been said that I'm a very personable fellow."

"But Miss Misato doesn't like you." The unasked question hung in the air like the buzzing of the omnipresent cicadas.

Kaji's grin deepened as he saw where the boy was going. _So it's going to be this, then. _

"Misato and I have a history, Shinji. We used to be together, in college." The spy sighed wistfully. "Those were the days. Young, and as carefree as anyone could be. The world was still just getting back on it's feet, and the worst of the Impact Wars were over, even though the fighting was still going on."

"What happened?"

The older man sighed again, but this time it was melancholy, and when he spoke, his voice was tinged with regret. "We had different ideas about the future. I wanted something more, but she wasn't ready for it then. Misato's lost a lot, you know. Her entire family perished during the chaos of the Second Impact and the wars. It was a bad idea, really, asking her to marry me. She wasn't ready to attach herself to another person on that sort of level. So we broke up. I made a couple of foolish decisions, and I eventually dropped off the grid all together for a few years.

As much as we might bicker, we still care about each other. I'm sure that it seems confusing, but just ask Rits about it sometime."

"So constant bickering and fighting with someone doesn't mean that they don't like each other?" Shinji asked, confusion plainly evident in his voice. He shifted into a sitting position on his bed, looking out the window.

"Well, you see Shinji, people are complicated. Not everyone expresses themselves in the same ways. Some people have problems with showing how they feel, while some just do it differently. It's not always hugs and kisses. But I get the feeling that you've got more on your mind than my history with Misato."

"Well, yeah... but it's kind of embarrassing..."

Kaji shook his head. "Shinji, you have to let silly things like that go. Feeling embarrassed, while normal, is just you thinking too much about what others think. You are one of the three most important people on the planet. You should decide how you want to act."

"But-"

"But nothing," the spy interrupted the pilot firmly, "When they can fight the Angels one-on-one, then they can tell you what you should feel embarrassed about. So, out with it. What's bothering you?"

Shinji swallowed, trying to gather up the courage to ask. _Asuka's always going on about how awesome he is. About how much of a real man, and how wonderful he is. Plus, it's not like I can ask anyone else._

"Well, how do you know when a girl likes you?" The boy paused, and then added to his question. "I mean, likes, likes you. How do you know when it's okay to kiss her?"

"Shinji, if you're having doubts about whether or not Rei likes you, you should ask Ritsuko for a CAT scan to see what's going on inside your brain." Kaji said, but his tone was of gentle amusement and not of derision. "I'm guessing that you haven't kissed her yet, then?"

"Why doesn't anyone get it?" Shinji complained, frustration coloring his voice. "Is it so wrong that I want to be sure about... us... before I do something that might screw it up?"

Kaji, somewhat taken aback by the boy's outburst, frowned. "What do you mean?"

"She was the first real friend I had. I don't want to mess something up and make it so we're not friends anymore."

"Just do what feels right. People don't come with instruction manuals, Shinji, and you can't use one person's experiences as the basis of comparison for your own, except as wide generalities. Any other advice that I, or anyone else, might give you will seem to be contradictory. You'd be getting tips like to be bold and take charge, but not be pushy. You might then ask at what point does the change happen, and no one will be able to tell you. All I can say is to just take the opportunities that are given, and see what happens from there."

Shinji was still thinking on the man's somewhat unhelpful advice when he fell asleep some hours later.

Author's Notes:

To Judicar Deimos: Nothing you had mentioned was too demanding :) Shinji's hanging out at the range is more of a background event, because unless you yourself likes going shooting at ranges, it's actually sort of boring to read about. You're at one end, your target's at another, and you shoot. But since it is a background event, I do need to make sure that the characters reference it every so often so that it stays in our minds. Rei and Shinji won't be dancing the horizontal mambo for some time now. As far as her squealing or wanting to, it's important to remember that she's still just a young super isolated girl just now starting to actually look past her microscope and her laboratory at the outside world. She's still crazy, but she's been a functioning sort of crazy. Trying to model oneself after Gendo will do that to you, because how she sees him isn't how he is at all. It's just the mask that he shows to the world, and he's worn it for so long (out of necessity, and because it's easier for him than to truly grieve over Yui) that it's harder and harder for him to want to take it off in private. Neither of them are robots. One's just good at concealing his emotions, and the other doesn't really know how to express hers. Rei thinks that she does, via observation of others, but she's not good at it.

To Da-Guru: I've noticed the whole uber-bitch Asuka thing as well, and on the inverse, a lot of super robotic / emotionally dead Rei. I don't like it that much, as it's too easy. Real life doesn't often work that way, and we do have to deal sometimes with trying to decide who we would rather be with romantically (or even friends with), if someone (male or female) has people fighting over them. That being said, some might point out that Asuka doesn't seem to be interested in Shinji other than professionally, and thus there is no need for her to assume the mantel of the uber-bitch to secure Rei's place as nicer, saner, and logical choice. Even if Asuka was seriously chasing after Shinji at this point, she still wouldn't be getting a bashing on the head from me.

To MoonishMan: While the dreams have elements of the back-story in them, keep in mind that they are nightmares, and Shinji and Gendo's subconscious' are not the most reliable historians. We will see more history between the two later on, as well as some other characters. Plus, our perspectives color how we see past events.

To GaijinOtaku215: Wait until Ritsuko finds out.


	27. Chapter 27

**I own nothing! All is owned by the appropriate copyright and trademark holders. **

**Thanks as always to Squire of Gothos for pre-reading!**

Kaji woke up to the sounds and smells of breakfast being made. Bacon and coffee fought each other for supremacy, and while he wasn't sure, he thought that he smelled blueberry pancakes. He grinned, his stomach already growling in anticipation. It was a vast improvement from the coffee and doughnuts from the vending machines at NERV. He sat up, stretching, taking stock of the room in the dim light of morning.

It was a small room, with barely any space for the futon on which he had slept. The bed, desk and chair that had come with the apartment took up most of the space, but the room's inhabitant didn't own very much. There was a cello propped up in the closet, along with several school uniforms and the suit that he had worn on the date, as was a white lab-coat with NERV's logo stitched on the breast, as well as a name-tag that read 'Ikari'. A small stack of t-shirts in varying colors sat on a shelf in the closet, as well as a few pairs of shorts. Another shelf held a small pistol case, which was locked.

On the desk sat the boy's schoolwork and laptop, along with a small framed photograph of the boy and Rei, obviously from the night of their date.

Shinji mumbled something and rolled over onto his side, causing the spy to shoot a glance at the sleeping boy. Shaking his head, the spy stood up and stretched again before quietly leaving the room, taking care to slide the door shut behind him.

He quietly padded through the hall and peeked into the kitchen, and was greeted with the image of Rei preparing breakfast, wearing a white apron over her blue cotton pajamas. He noted that where most people would have had some sort of background noise, such as a television or radio, or perhaps even humming to themselves, the mysterious girl worked in complete silence, with precise and deliberate movements.

His investigations into the history of the First Child had run dry almost as soon as he had begun. Where the Agents responsible for the safety and well-being of the Second and Third Children would talk about their charges, the men and women assigned to the First were surprisingly tight lipped about the young blue haired girl.

He knew that she was the legal ward of Commander Ikari, but lived alone in her own apartment building. He knew that she went to the Tokyo-3 Municipal High School, and that she had attended the Tokyo-3 Municipal Middle School, which was on the same grounds. She was a member of the Literary Club, but had a penchant for reading books outside the club's usual purview. She had poor homework scores but outstanding test scores, and her instructors had long since given up on trying to get her to participate in class.

The Marduk Institute had published it's first selection report on her three years and five months after the accident that had claimed Yui Ikari's life. There was nothing on the girl's history prior to her arrival to NERV. She had lived in the Geo-Front for a time, first with the Commander, and then by herself. At the age of ten she had reduced the small apartment building that she had been living in to ashes, and had subsequently been moved to the surface and enrolled in classes.

There was nothing else. Until recently, she had made no friends, she had no hobbies outside of the book club, and she apparently had no other clothing besides her school uniforms.

Kaji strolled into the kitchen, turning his best disarming grin upon the girl as she glanced over to see who it was. Ignoring the smile that usually reduced women to putty, she turned back to her work without so much as a nod in greeting.

"Good morning Rei. Sleep well?" Kaji walked over the cupboard, picking out a mug and filling it with coffee from the automated machine. He wasn't sure when Misato had started drinking coffee in the morning as opposed to her usual beer, but he wasn't going to complain. He himself was more fond of coffee for breakfast, anyway.

"Yes."

He moved over to the table, pulling out one of the chairs and sitting down. After taking an experimental sip of the coffee, he nodded in appreciation. It was much better than the stuff served at headquarters. He lifted the cloth napkin that covered a plate that sat on the table, and grinned as he saw the bacon that sat underneath.

"That's for Ikari."

"Oh?" Kaji's grinned deepened. "You didn't make enough for everyone?"

Rei didn't turn around from where she was fiddling with the pancakes. "No. If you desire breakfast, you can make it yourself."

"Isn't it the host's job to make the guest feel at home?"

"I do not live here."

"Well, I'm sure Shinji wouldn't mind sharing." Kaji went to lift the cloth again, to nab a piece of bacon, but threw himself backwards, springing out of his seat as a knife buried itself in the table. A pale hand shot out and caught the coffee mug out of the air, and Kaji stared as Rei set the now half empty cup on the table and return to her work at the stove. Forcing himself out of the defensive posture that he had assumed, he shook his head hesitantly. "Rei, did you just throw a knife at me?"

"Yes."

"Why?" he asked, his voice incredulous.

"I told you that it was for Ikari. You attempted to take it anyway."

"What if I had gotten hurt?"

"I know where the first aid kit is."

"Are you serious?"

Rei turned her head to look impassively at the spy, who was still standing over the fallen chair. "Yes."

She turned back to the pancakes, calmly flipping them with her spatula. "It is in the cupboard next to the sink."

Slowly, cautiously, Kaji righted the chair and sat down again, drinking what was left of his coffee, his eyes hard as he watched the girl finish her preparations. She arranged everything on the table, and then pulled the knife free. She looked at the spy as she placed the knife with the other dirty utensils before smoothing out the apron that she wore.

"I am going to wake Ikari up. I do not advise eating his breakfast."

Kaji was still drinking his coffee in quiet contemplation when the two pilots entered the kitchen.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato checked her watch for the tenth time since arriving at the main control room of the Mount Asama Geothermal Power Plant and Geological Survey Station, causing Ritsuko to chuckle as she looked up from the data output scrolling down the monitor.

"They're fine, Misato. Kaji will make sure that they don't kill each other."

"I'm not worried about **that**." Misato snapped at her friend, crossing her arms with a huff. "I just don't like that lout being around my kids. He's a bad influence."

Ritsuko shook her head and made a few notations on her PDA, sending the numbers off to the MAGI back in Tokyo-3. "He's a bad influence? That's your complaint against him? What about you? If I recall correctly, Kaji was a better housekeeper than you. Mind you, that's not saying much-"

"He's an obnoxious, insufferable, insolent lay-about! He's also the worst kind of womanizer, and as a Special Inspector from the UN, he's basically here to spy on us!"

"My, my, that's quite the list of offenses." Ritsuko commented, ignoring the glare the Operations Director shot her way. "Are you sure you're not letting the past color your judgment?" She turned and gently tapped Maya's shoulder. "Maya, you haven't been hit on by the Special Inspector, have you? Or have you seen him snooping about in places he shouldn't?"

Maya shook her head as she tried to focus on the numbers scrolling past on the screen.

"N-no, I can't say that I have."

"See, Misato? If he was here to spy on us, he'd be snooping about in our departments. And what sort of womanizer could resist Maya here?" Ritsuko squeezed Maya's shoulder for emphasis before letting go to check the MAGI's response, and thus missed the shiver than ran through the other woman.

Ritsuko, of course, knew very well that their old friend was indeed there to spy on them, but as he was more useful to Gendo alive than not, actions had not been taken. She also knew that the man's causal attitude towards relationships was in part her and Misato's faults, but her friend obviously wasn't about to admit to herself how much the man had meant to her once, and in all likelihood still meant to her now. Frankly, it was impressive enough that she had formed the level of attachment with Shinji that she had. It had surprised her when Misato had decided to take the boy in with her, instead of letting him live alone like Rei.

Frowning at the MAGI's response of 'Undecided', she looked up to Chief Technician Isobe, who was standing off to the side, wearing the same worried look that he had upon their arrival.

"The MAGI are undecided at the moment, Chief Technician. Until we can get our scanners up in place at the caldera's rim, we won't be able to get any conclusive evidence. When will your team be ready to deploy the modified detector?"

"They are running through the last diagnostic tests now, Doctor. After that, they will pack it up for transport, and will deliver it to the vault location." He paused to pour himself a cup of coffee, taking a large swig from it. "Thanks to your MAGI, we should be able to get a better picture."

Ritsuko nodded, going over to the large table that was home to large amounts of transplanted technology and hard-copy reports. The picture that had brought most of the main Operations and Technical Departments out from NERV sat on top of several reams of papers worth of numbers, some tracking the ambient temperature of the area, tectonic activity, power output and usage, and a hundred other things. But the picture, the picture was the key thing that had interested NERV. They couldn't care less that for the past two weeks that there had been a drop in the temperatures of the volcanic system, or that there had been a slight increase in tectonic activity.

But when the panicked chief technician had emailed NERV with a high resolution image of what looked like an egg resting underneath a few hundred meters of magma, well, that sparked a lot of interest.

The egg was called that because it was egg shaped, being an oblong ovoid about fifty meters long and forty meters wide. It had not been present in the underground lava chamber two days ago, and it's orgin was a mystery. It certainly was a matter of great importance to the geologists who worked at the survey station attached to the power plant, as the thing defied everything that they held to be true. It seemed to be resting at a depth of four hundred meters below the surface of the main lava dome, which in and of itself was unusual.

Even if one put aside the fact the 'egg' could stay solid at the temperatures that ranged from seven hundred to thirteen hundred degrees Celsius, it would be a super dense object and wouldn't just sit where it was in the liquid rock. Another thing to take into account was the fact that the shell seemed to be completely smooth, and that the muons (the unstable sub-atomic particle that the geologists used to take pictures of the inside of the volcano) were unable to penetrate the shell when they were used for such things specifically because the fact that they did not emit as much Bremsstrahlung Radiation made them ideal for deep penetration imaging.

Quite simply put, the egg should not exist.

NERV was considered to be the resident experts on things that shouldn't exist, so it was only natural that they be contacted. After Ritsuko had given her initial report to Commander Ikari, he had given the green light for her to take everything she needed to the power station before locking himself in his office. She knew that he was more than likely poring over the information from the scrolls, trying to divine some insight as to if this really could be the next Angel.

The blond scientist refilled her own coffee mug, taking careful sips of the scalding liquid.

_Perhaps it was a bad choice to drag Misato out here. We're not sure that it is an Angel yet, but if it is, she needs to be able to start putting a plan together before the Evangelions get here, and it's easier for her to do that on the ground, where she can see just what she's got to work with. But until then, she's just getting in everyone's hair and isn't helping anything with her obsessing over 'her kids'. _

_At least if we do need to deploy them, power won't be an issue._ Ritsuko smiled into her cup as she looked out the windows of the control room into the main transformer room. _With only a few modifications, we'll be able to plug the umbilical cables into the main grid here. Of course, if it is indeed a dormant Angel, we'll be given a unprecedented opportunity. If we can capture it while it lies there asleep, we'll be able to study it at our leisure. But then, how does one go about capturing something that sits in the bottom of a volcano?_

Misato looked at her watch again, before sighing, pacing back and forth. She ran her hands through her hair.

"Jeez, Misato. Calm down, will you? Give him a call if you're so worried. Besides, do you think he's the type of person to get in trouble, even if Kaji is the bad influence you think?"

"N-noo." Misato grudgingly admitted, frowning.

"And Rei's going to be right next to him. She'll keep him out of trouble."

Misato raised an eyebrow at that. "Say, just when are you so keen on Rei sticking next to Shinji anyway? What happened to-"

"Improved synchronization scores, Misato. Increased stability of the Ego-Border. Lack of Mental Instability issues leading to Class III Cascading Wave-Form Reversal." Ritsuko paused to take a few more cautious sips of coffee, before grinning smugly at her friend. "Plus, they're cute together."

Misato held up one finger, about to make a counter argument, but when she opened her mouth to speak, she found that she had nothing to say. Clamping her jaw shut, she shot her friend a suspicious glance before going back to pacing back and forth.

Maya's phone began to ring, and both women looked over in her direction. The upbeat song seemed out of place amongst the mounting tension and fraying nerves. The technician blushed as she answered it, one hand still flying over her keyboard in a flurry of activity.

"Oh! Good, good. I'll let everyone know then. Let us know when it's in place." Hanging up, Maya cocked her head to the side to look back at her superiors. "Makato says that they've got the last of the modifications done on the wide-spectra scanners, and are loading them up for delivery now. He'll let us know once they have the first of them in place on the caldera's rim. We'll be able to start scanning for the energy signatures associated with the Angels immediately after the first one goes up, but we won't be able to get a positive blood type reading back until at least four sensors are in place."

Misato frowned even as Ritsuko smiled and nodded. Moving over to the table bearing the hard copy readouts, the Operations Director shook her head in confusion. "Why do we need four sensors to get a blood type reading? That doesn't make any sense."

Ritsuko sighed as took off her glasses to rub the bridge of her nose, something that she did quite often when she was about to try to explain how meta-biology and meta-physics worked to her friend. "Well, we actually want more than just four, as that's the minimum number we can use for one for scanning for Angelic activity in a given area. But as for why we need four of them, it lets us work around the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, as well as utilizing the Schrodinger Dogma Protocols. Because the Angels warp reality around them with their AT Fields, the radiation that they emit and reflect acts differently than the normal world. Then, you have to take into account that the Angels also exist in more dimensions than we can perceive, which also alters how the world around them reacts. For example, we have evidence that suggests that the Third Angel changed the speed of light in it's locality."

Maya nodded as Misato and Isobe stared in horrified shock at how calmly the doctor mentioned the desecration of a universal constant. "Sempai, don't forget that the Fifth Angel also showed that same tendency, but also altered Planck's Constant." She blushed as strangling sounds emitted from the geologist. "It took us a while to figure it out, but the only way to make the mathematics work was to reduce it by a third. After that, it was as easy as pie!"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji stared at the brooding figure of Unit-01, his eyes locked on the dull glow shining from within the recessed and armored eye slits. He was waiting for Rei, who was busy in a meeting with his father. Instead of hanging around the door to the Commander's office, Shinji had instead elected to come down to the cage to see his Evangelion. It had been some time since he had seen it, let alone synchronize with it, and he didn't have anything better to do.

_It's strange... I never thought I'd miss seeing this thing. But it feels weird, standing here now. Like I've come back home. _The boy frowned at the thought as he carefully sat down on the catwalk in front of the giant helmeted visage of his war machine. _Have I really become that... used to it? Just a year ago I wouldn't have believed that something like this could exist, let alone that there would be three of them... And then there's the Angels. _

_**I hate the Angels.**_

Shinji blinked, surprised at the thought that had bubbled up out from the depths of his mind. As a rule, he wasn't much given to strong displays of emotion. It was hard for him to get riled up over most things, as he just couldn't bring himself to care. This did mean that he was something of a pushover, and that is was easy for others to bully him into things, but that just didn't matter to him. It was easier to go along with what the others wanted, rather than put up a fight. He knew this irritated Asuka for some reason, but he couldn't muster up the effort to care; it just didn't matter. The few times that he had gotten into altercations, either verbal or physical, it had surprised him just as much as it had the others.

_Do I really hate them? Do they deserve to be hated? Do they hate us? Do they know what they are doing, that it hurts us? I suppose Doctor Akagi would probably say something like it's the human mind's rationalization of an impossible situation. Asuka would say that I'm just being dumb. _He smiled softly at that thought, imagining the redhead with her hands on her hips shaking her head at his latest bout of 'idiocy'. _Miss Misato would say... I don't know... maybe that I'm trying to dehumanize the enemy? But they're not human at all in the first place. Rei would tell me that I'm developing a bond with Unit-01, and accepting my purpose of protecting everyone. I wonder if it's the same with her and Unit-00. Does she hate the Angels, too? _

_I wonder what Father would say._

He yawned again, still tired from the previous night. He hadn't gotten much sleep, as he had left the sleeping pills under his pillow untouched since he didn't want to let Kaji know that he was self medicating. He still wasn't sure how he was going to explain it if they showed up on one of the numerous tests that he was subjected to on a monthly basis, but filed that away as something to worry about later. Shaking his head in a vain effort to clear it, he noticed that there was an Entry Plug inserted into the socket that ran into the cyborg's spine, numerous cables running out of it and into the diagnostic machines.

"Huh... they must be doing some tests..."

Shinji yawned again, and then looked around the cage as a new thought struck him. _I wonder if I can take a nap in the Entry Plug... I don't see anyone around... I mean, it's not like I can synchronize with it while the plug is open and it's in diagnostic mode, so it'd be okay to just rest in it while I'm waiting..._

Shinji pulled himself back upright, and maneuvered his way up the stairs and catwalks to the Entry Plug, which lay open and inviting, like a favorite chair at the end of a long day. Leaving the crutches propped up on the lip of the access point so that the hatch couldn't accidentally close on him, he settled himself down into the cockpit, automatically threading his foot into the waiting stirrup. Relaxing back in the seat, he folded his hands behind his head, and closed his eyes with a satisfied sigh.

_I really do feel better in here..._

His eyes snapped open again as he heard a train whistling, jerking upright as the sound shattered the background hum of electronics.

Looking around, he found himself not standing on the lonely platform where his father had left him, but rather inside a train car as it moved along the tracks, the sound of their passage steady and regular, like a heart beat. He was also not a child as he was in those terrible nightmares, but as he was now, but he noted with detached surprise that his missing leg was present. Even though it was hidden by his pants, he could feel it, and he could feel his toes when he experimentally wiggled them inside of his shoe.

Looking up and down the dimly lit train car, he saw that he was alone.

_Well, this is a new dream... Wait, how do I know that I'm dreaming? Can I be aware that I'm having a dream? How does that work? Is that even possible?_

Looking around again, but still finding nothing, he tried to concentrate on summoning up something, reasoning that if this was some sort of dream, then he should be able to call up stuff from his imagination and thoughts.

Despite his best efforts, he was unable to change the environment or bring anything into existence. Somewhat dejected, he stood up and walked down the length of the train, noting with growing dread the blank concrete walls of the tunnel that the train traveled through. Apart from the regularly spaced lights, there were no markings, where in Tokyo-3 and the Geo-Front the tunnels had level and location codes. He reached the end of the car, and looked through the window to the adjoining car.

He reeled in shock as he saw a miniature version of Unit-00 sprawled out on a bank of seats, it's long arms folded underneath it's cyclopean head. As if sensing that it was being watched, the Evangelion shifted, it's red eye moving from where it was staring at the ceiling to look at him. Transfixed by the singular eye, Shinji froze as it observed him with what he supposed was interest, before shifting back up to the ceiling after a few moments.

Not sure what to do, Shinji stood there at the door, watching the war-machine. His continued observation was noted by the white Evangelion, which then pulled itself to its feet, walked over to the door, and threw it open.

As it stood before him, hands on its hips, head cocked to one side, Shinji noted that despite it being the same height as him, there was a distinct sense of cautious animosity emanating from the cyborg that made it seem to loom over him.

**Well? What do you want?**

He took a few steps back as the words resonated within his skull. Unit-00 did not follow after him, but stayed where it was.

**Look, I've been nice to her. We're okay now. No need for you to get all crazy.**

Confused, Shinji opened his mouth to speak, but he couldn't find his voice. Deciding that this dream was weird enough without him looking like a slack-jawed idiot, he closed it again, trying to think.

Unit-00 shook its head and turned back to go sit down.

**If you're going to talk, do so. Otherwise, stop bothering me. **

Shinji, starting to put things together, hesitantly stepped into the train car, taking a look around. It was exactly the same as the one that he had left, and beyond this one he saw another. He sat down on the bank of seats across from the sprawled out Evangelion, thinking.

_Unit-00 must represent Rei. My subconscious is weird. But if my subconscious representation of Rei is telling me to finally talk to her, what does that mean? We talk to each other all the time._ The boy grimaced, and clapped a hand over his face. _Of course. She means for me to hurry up and kiss her. Of course my subconscious would be obsessing over this; I've only been obsessing over this while awake for the past, oh, I don't know, forever? I'm obviously trying to associate kissing with something else that I've already managed to do. That way, it makes it seem easier to do._

Unit-00 turned to regard its companion with confused curiosity.

**What are you mumbling about over there? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad that you're at least starting to interact with me, but you're beginning to creep me out. **The Evangelion shifted and sat up, crossing it's arms in front of it's chest. **And another thing, I've been wanting to ask you about your-**

Unit-00 was cut off mid-thought as Shinji, deciding to try to see how his subconscious representation of Rei would react, pushed up out of his seat and drew the Evangelion into a deep embrace. Despite the armor, it was a lot like hugging Rei, the sense of eminent surprise that washed over him feeling exactly like her. He drew his head back from where he had rested it between Unit-00's head and shoulder, and kissed the smooth metal plate where it's mouth should have been.

As Unit-00 went into shock, Shinji opened his eyes, and caught his reflection in the glowing lens of Unit-00's singular eye. His eyes went wide, his jaw dropped and he pushed back in shock, looking up to the window above the confused Evangelion.

Unit-01's face stared back at him from the window, eyes glowing like coals underneath the helmet's horned brow.

Shinji looked down at his arms, at his body, only to find that it wasn't his. Gone was his shirt and slacks, along with the black tennis shoes. Instead, armor encased his limbs and torso, the sectioned plates a deep, rich purple, the color of ancient royalty, while the emerald green highlights, representing immortality stood out in stark contrast. He backed away from the stirring Unit-00, raising his hands up placatingly.

**Oh, that was nice. **Unit-00's eye dimmed and then brightened, burning like a torch. **Let's do that again.** It pushed him down onto the seats behind him, straddling him, it's face leaning in towards his.

Shinji woke up, screaming, in the Entry Plug. After a few seconds, he managed to get his heart rate down to a manageable level, with it merely pounding in his chest like a race horse, rather than like a machine gun being fired at a cyclic rate. He began to scramble to get out of the cockpit, looking around to see if anyone had heard his screams.

_I either need to kiss Rei or give her back that psychology book she lent me, _he thought as he began to make his way towards the elevators as quickly as possible, glad that the cage was otherwise empty. He had no idea how he could even begin to try and explain this away.

He stabbed the button for the floor to the Pribnow Box, sighing contentedly as the doors slid shut, hiding his Evangelion from view. Leaning up against the wall, he fished his phone out of his pocket, wanting to see how long he had been asleep. He froze when he saw the glowing numerals.

He had been in the Entry Plug for barely one minute.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei watched the silent form of Commander Ikari with some trepidation. He was sitting behind his desk, as was the norm, but he had assumed the posture and position that he used either when he was deep in thought or when he was trying to intimidate people. She had long since completed her studies on the psychology behind the carefully constructed pose, and had witnessed it's utility first hand in limited trials amongst the members of her own peer group. So she understood what, why and how it worked, but that knowledge did not reassure her, nor did it do anything to quell the slightly elevating level of panic that was churning in her abdomen.

"You wish to eat at Captain Katsuragi's this Friday." He repeated her statement, rolling it around in his mouth as if tasting it. This was obviously not the venue that he had expected the girl to choose. "So you do not wish to have dinner with me, then."

"No, Sir. I wish to dine with you at Captain Katsuragi's."

Gendo did not shift in his seat, but Rei noticed the appearance of a facial tic on the Sub-Commander's face. The older man twisted his mouth in a manner associated with attempts to conceal mirth and amusement, Rei noted with interest. However, she failed to understand how her request could be cause for such amusement on the professor's part. Nothing that she had said was inherently humorous, neither was there any hidden meanings in what she had said, the so called 'double entendre'. At least, she did not think that there was any way to misconstrue her request for them to eat at the Captain's apartment as sexual innuendo.

"You wish to dine with me at Captain Katsuragi's apartment."

Rei shifted her crimson gaze back towards her commander. She did not understand why he kept repeating what she was saying. He had certainly never done so before, and although the action was much more in line with the habits of the younger Ikari, she would not have thought that it was something that he inherited from his father.

"Yes, sir."

"For what purpose? If you do not wish to dine in a restaurant, we can eat here in the Geo-Front."

That course of action was not without precedent, she knew. They had done so often, when either time constraints or other issues kept them from actually eating at the restaurant that provided their meal. But this time she did not wish to dine with the Commander with just food from one of the many restaurants they had sampled in the past. She had another agenda.

"I wish to prepare the meal myself, Sir."

"You want to prepare the meal yourself."

Rei bit the inside of her lip to keep from asking why he kept repeating her, the urge to comment on the inanity of the Commander's actions thus far in their meeting obviously a result from near constant company with the Second Child. However, Rei was not about to slip up in front of the man that she considered to be her father by allowing such irritation show. It was not something that he would ever do, after all.

"Yes, Sir. I wish to prepare the meal, not only for us, but for... Pilot Ikari as well." She seethed inwardly at the slip, knowing that both the men had noticed it. She had almost called him by his given name, something that she had promised herself that she would only call him when talking to him. That way, he would know how special he was to her. She almost never called people by their given names, with the exception of Captain Katsuragi, who demanded that she do so with her, and Hikari, who likewise demanded it, although not as adamantly as her commanding officer..

But when she thought of him as Shinji, it was had not to use that designator when talking about him with others.

"You wish for Pilot Ikari to dine with us."

Rei wanted to scream.

"Yes, Sir."

"To what end?"

Rei opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it again. She knew why she wanted to incorporate Shinji into their dinner plans, but she had no way to explain it so that the Commander was likely to approve. Despite his orders for her to 'become closer' with his son, he had given no more evidence that he thought of the boy as anything more than a pilot, nor had he ever asked her about him. Ever.

Of course, Shinji had never asked about the Commander either. The one time that they had discussed him, the talk had ended very poorly.

"I... I... I wish for Pilot Ikari to dine with us because I want him to."

It was a redundant statement, a tautology. It said nothing. And yet, it spoke volumes to the two men who watched the young girl.

Rei stared blankly at the Commander, waiting for him to veto her choice, and in turn the Commander stared back at her, the light reflecting off of his glasses and the rest of his face obscured by his hands.

"Very well. I will arrive at six in the evening."

Rei's eyes widened significantly, but her voice remained as steady and subdued as ever.

"Yes, Sir."

"You may go, Rei."

Rei turned and headed for the door, feeling light-headed and giddy, a small smile on her face, now that her back was to the two men. That smile froze and slid off as Commander Ikari spoke again.

"Have fun, Rei."

She slowly turned around, looking back at the Commander, but the man was already poring over one of the reports on his desk, pointing out something to the Sub-Commander, who had his PDA out, making a notation on it. Both men, sensing her gaze, looked up from their work.

"Yes, Rei?"

"Nothing, Sir."

Gendo nodded, and returned to the report. Rei quickly left the room, the door sliding shut behind her with a hiss.

Kozo shook his head. "That was mean, you know," he commented, tucking the digital assistant back into a pocket, "I thought that she was going to snap at you for repeating everything she said."

Gendo shook his head as he leaned back in the chair, tossing the paper back down onto the desk. "So did I. An interesting turn of events, isn't it? I have to admit that I did not see this coming."

"That's unusual," the older man said with a smirk, retrieving a chair from the hidden closet. "She wants to bring her boyfriend home to meet her parents. I would have thought that you would have had this written down in your master plan somewhere."

Gendo stared at his mentor, a blank look of vague horror etched on his features, his mind obviously running at near light-speed trying to wrap itself around the concept just handed to it.

"Do you really think that it's that? Is that what she's thinking?"

"I doubt that she knows that's what going on, but it's as plain as day." Kozo said as he sat down with a satisfied sigh, rubbing his left knee. "It's unfortunate that Doctor Akagi isn't here to officiate as the girl's mother."

Gendo took off his glasses to rub at his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose, starting to feel another migraine being born behind his skull. "I am eternally grateful that she isn't here to participate, if this is a 'come meet my parents' dinner. I wonder if he knows about this?"

Kozo chuckled. "I doubt that she's told him. He'd probably start hyperventilating. I think that it's going to be a surprise."

"And what a surprise it will be. If this dinner happens at all."

"You think that it's an Angel then?"

"What else could it be? No, it's an Angel. I don't even need the scrolls to tell me this. It all boils down to if they can verify and come up with a plan before it wakes."

"It would be quite the coup to take one in an embryonic stage. It would open up more avenues of research."

"Yes. It would be a definite boon to the work on the S2 engine, as well as our own work with ADAM."

"How is that going? I've been busy with our other preparations." The older man pulled out another PDA, an exact replica of the first one that he had held before, but where that one had disappeared into a pants pocket, this one emerged from his jacket. "Speaking of that, our agents with the Chechnians report that they are ready to initiate Operation Blackjack."

"Are they? Good. Tell them to proceed. The outcome of this next battle won't affect Operation Blackjack at all." Gendo made a few notations on the computers calendar, and moved several desktop shortcuts around into a new configuration. "As far as the work with ADAM goes, the Doctor thinks that we'll be ready to operate in a few weeks."

Kozo tented his hands in front of his face, deep in thought. "There won't be any turning back for you then, after that. Nothing will be the same."

Gendo's eyes flicked over to his hands currently sheathed in his white gloves, one on the keyboard and the other on the mouse, and then to the door that Rei had just exited. "True. Even if we decide to adjust things, or the situation changes, the operation cannot be easily undone. It is an invasive procedure."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka walked through the main armament room, on her way to look over the new stocks that had been delivered. They had come from NERV-Moscow, and while the children had seen them in the simulations, they had yet to use them in actual battle. Asuka liked seeing their weapons choices in person, when selecting her load outs both for actual battles and for the combat sims. Down in the vast armory, there were a lot of weapons to see.

There were racks upon racks of firearms of both 'normal' and advanced munition types. Of course, it was important to remember that the normal munition for the basic Evangelion scale firearm was still on the scale of a mid-size naval gun, and they were 'just' depleted uranium rounds. The solid-state rounds only went up in caliber or velocity after that, depending on whether or not one was using the new or old style rail-gun systems.

While Asuka had a good familiarity with most of the weapons, she bowed to Shinji's superior knowledge in this area. The boy had a definite preference for the high velocity and longer range of the newer rail-gun systems, but he also had on more than one occasion gone for the ridiculously over-sized MK 3 M117 shoulder launcher, which they barely even had munitions for, having only ten of the massive bombs, each weighing in with 750lbs of explosives.

Then there were the particle guns, the small store of weaponized particle accelerators, scaled down versions of the massive prototype that had been used in the fight with the Fifth Angel. They only had four of the weapons, but they were devastatingly powerful. That being said, NERV was always improving on the weapons, and some days it seemed like they were trying to make the ultimate weapons of mankind capable of slagging entire cities. She knew that there had to be some reason that they were making anti-matter down in the lowest levels of the massive complex. She had also seen some of the work being done on the barium seeded plasma guns, but her expertise lay elsewhere, so she wasn't actively working on that project.

But as terrifyingly devastating their ranged weapons were, Asuka was by far a larger fan of the melee weapons, and she was interested in the latest additions to her arsenal, the new progressive swords.

There were eighteen of them, in both one hand and two handed styles, but all were done in various styles from Europe's history, rather than Asia's, despite where they had ended up. One in particular caught Asuka's eye, a massive renditioning of a fifteenth century German two-handed longsword. She grinned as she surveyed the huge weapon, mentally comparing it to one of the dozens of human sized swords that were owned by the Berlin University, ones that she had trained with.

The sword had been a favorite of the German foot soldiers, and her ancestors had developed various combat styles for it. The Landsknechts, the elite mercenary soldiers of the time, had equipped their own elite shock troops with them. The weapon's length was for reach, and was made for short thrusts and cuts, aided by the large pommel which gave the wielder fine control over the weapon.

Despite it's intimidating size, the swords were usually no more than five pounds, with the heaviest ones meant for combat topping out at about seven pounds. It was a no frills weapon, being pure sword, made for killing.

Asuka had to make a conscious effort to not drool. She also had to find out more about it.

As it turned out, the MK 5 Progressive Sword was not actually a progressive weapon, the sword's blade being larger than the vibrating mechanism of the knife and ax weapons could handle. Instead, the sword had been given an absurdly keen edge, thanks to the advanced laser machinery located underneath NERV-Moscow, and AT Field Focus Projectors had been installed into the cross-guard to allow the wielder to sheath the blade in the reality-altering force-field, enabling the use of the defensive force field as an offensive weapon.

The applications of such a device were clear to the redheaded girl, as the AT Field enhanced weapon would be able (in theory) to rip through the AT Field of an Angel without her having to focus on degrading the shield first, to make a way clear for the weapon. And then, if there was no field up, the AT Field would cleave through her opponent's flesh like a hot knife through butter. Of course, she was also the one who had suggested it to the design teams, based off of her research on the Third Child and his bizarre use of the AT Field.

_I know what I'm going to be using in today's sims..._

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"You know, Third," Asuka commented as the landscaped flickered and flowed together for the fourth time that day, the simulation resetting itself, "You're not actually half bad at this. I mean, you're no Misato, but one wouldn't think that she's any sort of tactical genius just by looking at her. You might actually be of more use outside the Evangelion than in it."

"Umm... Thanks... I guess."

Asuka shook her head in irritation. "C'mon, take some pride in yourself! You're in command of a brilliant and deadly warrior, and Rei!"

Rei, listening with half an ear on the command channel, raised her eyebrows fractionally, before speaking. "And despite the Second Child ignoring even the simplest of orders, you have managed to successfully lead the operations to an acceptable end-state, with minimal collateral damage."

"What's that supposed to mean, First?" Asuka snapped at the 'SOUND ONLY' icon on her screen.

"I was agreeing with you." Rei commented, allowing the smallest amount of surprise to enter her voice. "Pilot Ikari should indeed take pride in himself for his accomplishments." She shifted slightly in her seat, mentally preparing herself. This was as good a time as any to step up the pace of her current experimentation with Shinji, she reasoned. Besides, now that the Commander had consented to have dinner with his son, she had little time to waste, either on the Second Child, or her Sister, who had been bugging her with questions about the boy and Unit-01 throughout the tests.

"Shinji, you have successfully killed four extradimensional entities, thus preventing the extinction of mankind on each occasion, and you operated in support of operation that dealt with the fifth such being. You have three solo kills and one assisted kill, setting you in the lead for reaching the so called 'Ace' status. You have also saved the city of Toyota from the depredations of a malfunctioning robot with an on-board nuclear reactor undergoing meltdown, and now you are doing a commendable job as Acting Assistant Operations Director, a position usually given to seasoned military commanders. You should be proud of your accomplishments."

Seething in her Entry Plug, Asuka glowered at the icon again. "Don't be going and giving him a big head though! He still screws things up! Three of those fights were multiple engagement battles because of him! They don't count! And it's not like they would actually let him take charge of a real operation anyway. Good in the sims is one thing, good in real life is another." She crossed her arms as she glared ahead at her screens, but perked up as Kaji's voice came over the communication net.

"Now, Asuka, is that anyway to talk about your Operations Director?"

"But Kaji, he's just doing it for these simulations so he's not just sitting around being useless. Besides, why don't you have a go at this?" She asked, a sly tone entering her voice. "I bet that you'd be a great commander!"

Kaji's laugh, at times insolent, and at others good-natured, sounded over the communication relay. "Oh, I'd be a terrible commander. I'm not very good at these military things, Asuka. I'm just filling in for Misato as you three's watcher while she's gone."

As soon as the words left the spy's mouth, he winced, wishing that he could take them back. It was not the first time that he had made that particular wish, for he had often said things that had come out the wrong way. He could almost feel the coldness emanating from the simulation body, even though it was several rooms away, and sitting in a pool of nutrient rich goo.

Asuka, her face screwing up in anger, desperation, betrayal and disbelief, forced the ball of ice that had formed in her stomach down so far into herself that she couldn't feel it. She managed to convince herself that the spy hadn't meant what he had said, which was true enough, but she also convinced herself that he had meant things which he had not.

"Well," she said with false cheer, "Let's get this next simulation under way, shall we?"

The technicians assigned to work with them for the day set about the task of starting the next battle simulation without a word.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

It was night, but the lone inhabitant of the eastern wing of the mansion did not sleep. Instead, he sat at the keys of a piano, an ancient relic of time past, a symbol of wealth and status. The piano before him was but one of many that sit in the vast room, each arrayed in a large circle. The one he currently played was a Blüthner model, and it had been owned by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. As impressive as this was, it perhaps was not the most famous, as the one to his left, which was another Blüthner. It had been owned by Johannes Brahms.

Kiel Lorenz was nothing if not generous to those who pleased him. The young man who sat at the piano of a dead emperor had pleased the man who was SEELE 01, the Chairperson of the Human Instrumentality Committee, and the leader of the Illuminati. Yes, Kaworu Nagisa had pleased his master well, which was why he has an entire wing of the ancient man's palace to himself, where he could content himself with the music that his master had come to detest.

A man, a servant so low that the gray haired albino boy does not even know his name, stood behind and to the side of the piano's bench seat, waiting patiently, albeit nervously. Most of the mansion's staff disliked the soft-spoken child. His mannerisms, while always the height of politeness and civility, seemed to be lacking, somehow, lacking in some nebulous and unquantifiable way, just as his too-wide smile seemed to be empty and meaningless. His voice, which could only be described as melodic, was a maddening melody without meaning or meter.

It was this servant's job to wait on the Young _Master_, to see to his every whim. It was a job that fifteen other men had done before him, one that had driven fifteen men before him to suicide. This was a fact that he has pushed to back of his mind, for his own good.

The Young _Master_'s hands flowed like water with unnatural smoothness over the keys of the ancient instrument, calling forth the music of the old masters. Tonight the boy was favoring Mozart, which was a pleasant change from all the Beethoven. It was not that the butler disliked Beethoven, (something that the Old Master, Kiel Lorenz, had come to do) but the child would play the man's music for days and days on end.

Behind the pair, the door to the library opened, and a woman rushed in, moving quickly and silently, not wishing to disturb the Young _Master_ as he played. No one wanted to do that, not after the last one who had done so had clawed out her own eyes as she went insane.

Everyone knew that it was the Young _Master_ who had done it. He had a way of getting into people's heads, into their minds. One of the old butlers, before he had leapt from the roof of the mansion, had whispered to the wine steward that he could hear the boy's sibilant voice in his mind, and that he could no longer hear his own. _That was silly, though. _

She leaned up and whispered into the butler's ear, her eyes wide with fear at even being in the same room as the young man who sat with his back to them. The butler nodded to her, and she fled as she had come, swiftly and quietly.

Kaworu had overheard everything, of course. It was either that, or he was psychic; the man wasn't sure, as there should have been no way for the boy to overhear the young woman's words.

"I am being summoned to the master study," the boy stated, never breaking from his playing, the notes sliding into each other like oil over water. "I am to report at once. Master Lorenz has questions, questions again!" The last sentence was spoken with an almost reverential glee.

"Yes, Sir."

"Then I must report at once! I must answer the questions!"

"Of course, Sir."

The boy spun around on the bench, and hopped up to his feet with feline grace, and headed for the door. The butler fell in behind him, trying to ignore the fact that the sonata continued to play out for several notes after the boy's fingers ceased to dance on the keys.

As they made their way through the halls to the large master study in the center of the house, the boy hummed the same song that he had been playing. They encountered none of the myriad staff, not even the hardened killers that served as the private security for the most powerful man on the planet. No one wanted to be anywhere near the boy if they could help it.

"He's going to ask about the Angels, you know," the boy confided in his manservant. "He's going to ask about Sandalphon!"

The butler, of course, had no idea what the boy was going on about. Of course, this didn't bother the man at all, because the ashen haired, red eyed _god_ child was _glorious_ insane. He didn't _ever want to serve anyone else_ want to know what the Young _Master_ meant when he chatted about angels.

"Oh, and he's going to want to know about Ikari-kun!" Despite the fact that they were speaking in German, the boy had added the Japanese suffix to the Commander's name. The man following after Kaworu **really** didn't want to know what that was about.

Presently, they arrived at the doors to the study, doors beyond which the man had never passed, and with luck, never would. The Old Master was just as strange in his own manners and habits, according to the men and women that served him directly, although less likely to make you go insane. He was content to _serve for all time _wait patiently outside _while his betters conversed about things beyond his comprehension._

The master study was not brightly light, but neither was it dark. Instead, the lights were at a soft level, but bright enough for easy reading of delicate documents that could be damaged by bright lights, bleached of color, drying them out and destroying them. Kiel Lorenz had many such documents, ranging from books, to scrolls, and loose parchment.

This was not because he took pleasure in owning antiques, or because he was a diligent owner and student of the ancient tomes, these sources of knowledge far older than he, even though he was far older than any other human on the planet. It was because these things had knowledge and power, and while some of them were actual tablets of clay, metal and rock, nothing on them was set in stone.

A prophecy could be met in many, many different ways. The outcome was sure to occur, but the specifics were as mutable as the clouds in the sky. The winds of Fate could blow in many ways.

Thus, Kiel Lorenz had a vested interest in keeping the numerous objects that detailed the path to his Ascension and Immortality in a state where he could use them. Instrumentality would occur, and he would be damned if he was not at it's helm.

Kaworu approached the desk of his master with all the decorum that he was usually without. Kiel Lorenz did not appreciate the boy's unique sense of... being... at all, and demanded that the ashen haired child act appropriately in his presence. It was a lesson that the clone had learned hard. This body, the human body, was very good at feeling pain. Kiel Lorenz was a master at granting it. All one had to do was know what buttons to push, what levers to pull, and it was the simplest thing to reduce even a cloned god-thing to a whimpering ball of tears, blood, piss and snot.

"You summoned me, Sir?"

The ancient cyborg looked up from the bronze tablets that sat in front him, carved with words in a language so old that no one alive knew it's name. The man's visor sat in front of dead eyes, eyes that had ceased to function almost ten years ago. The visor was the man's eyes now, and he could see things that he hadn't before. Things that others couldn't. Things like the halo that sat above the boy's head, or the wisps of energy that rose up out of his shoulders, looking more like tentacles than wings. Things like the pinpricks of light that burned behind his eyes.

Things that could drive a man mad, if he saw enough.

Some would say that Kiel Lorenz had gone mad years ago, even before the loss of his eyes. They would say this in hushed tones, and throw worried looks over their shoulders, but they would say it all the same.

They were, of course, entirely correct. Kiel Lorenz had traded his sanity away almost a century ago now. That hadn't stopped him in his rise to power, however, just as the loss of his eyesight hadn't even been a speed bump on that same road. The visor that he wore was what had taken his eyesight, after all.

"Yes, yes, I summoned you. You know what is happening, right now?"

The boy nodded, eager to please, his red eyes shining brighter than they should have in the muted lighting. "Sandalphon is next. He will awaken in twenty and four days, on the eve of the day that is revered as the birth of Isa, although that is not actual day of his birth." The gray haired boy sniffed disdainfully. "That day belongs to the-"

"Enough." Lorenz interrupted his ward, holding his hand up to halt the boy's chatter. "Sandalphon has been found."

Kaworu's eyes widened in shock. In the gray-scale world that Lorenz saw, the halo and energy whips brighten in conjunction with the boy's eyes. "He, He has been found?"

"Yes. Inside Mt. Asama, in Japan. He is still in embryonic form. They say that it is a huge, super-dense egg, one that sits in a lake of magma. Even now, NERV works to confirm that it is an Angel in Waiting, but when they do, they will move quickly."

"But it's not time yet!" the boy wailed, his cry sounding like the pealing of bells. "Ikari-kun is supposed to take him! But he's not better yet!"

"No, it's not time yet. I do not wish for NERV to go on the offensive. The schedule must be adhered to. The Scenario must be played out according to my will." The old man gestured to the tablets in front of him. "These are being less than helpful. Tell me, what can we do to arrest this disaster, and set things back onto the course that I have laid out?"

Kaworu began to pace back and forth, his eyes narrowed in concentration, the omnipresent smile having vanished, applying all of his towering intellect and otherworldly knowledge to the problem of how to salvage the situation.

Kiel stood up from his chair, not being the invalid that he seemed, and began to circle the room again, scanning all of his assembled items for something, anything at all that could be used or could offer up some new insight into the changing rivers of inevitability.

Lorenz had the ability to call off the investigation, but that would greatly weaken his position. Sandalphon would emerge in It's due time, and anything that he would say from that point on would be considered circumspect. While being an annoyance, it was still unacceptable.

They could arrange for some accident or another to occur, one that would call back the team, sending them scurrying like the mice they were to face whatever threat he had conjured up, but that would tip his hand for when the real invasion began, and it would take nothing less than an invasion to halt their investigation into the possibility of them having found a nascent Angel. They would fix things so that they could not be taken again in such a manner. That too, was unacceptable.

But brute force was not the only tool that he had at his disposal. His agents were numerous and subtle. With a word he could strike down the pilots, one or all of them. But sicknesses were a tricky thing, and he couldn't afford to permanently lose one of the pilots at this juncture. That would throw the rest of the Scenario off balance, which was what he was attempting to fix in the first place.

The First Child, though. The First Child was a clone, just as Kaworu was. Better yet, she was not nearly as robust as the boy, for just as Unit-00 was a prototype, so was she. The Ayanami bloodline was weak. Not so the Nagisa cultures, which benefited from much more Angelic DNA. She could fall prey to some sickness, some bug. The flu, perhaps. It was always a danger. And should she die, there was no doubt that Ikari would have a new clone decanted on the hour, the old one cremated. But to keep up appearances, the scientists would have to return to Tokyo-3. They would have to abandon their little inquest into that which they should not have found.

Kiel Lorenz smiled, his gray lips stretching in a smile that did not even have the decency of looking pleasant, if empty, such as the one his ward usually wore. When Kiel Lorenz smiled, it was never pleasant.

This plan also had the added bonus of letting Ikari know that he could, and would strike at any time against him. A warning. Since it was against the replaceable cog, the man would undoubtedly think that it was in retaliation for the theft of the sample from Berlin. It was, after all, exactly the type of thing that he would do.

He returned to his seat, settling in, making himself comfortable. Kaworu noted the activity, and stopped packing to watch his patron curiously, noting the grin on the old man's face.

Kiel explained his new adjustment to the boy, and the child closed his red eyes, letting his limited precognitive powers cast out into the possible futures. Seeing that things would move along as the Old Master said they should, he opened them, and nodded as he spoke.

"Ayanami will die of the sickness, the consumption stealing away her life. They will return, but it will be to no avail. She will pass from this world, but the Commander will activate a new clone. They will think that she has made a recovery, but he will know that we have struck. Sandalphon will go unnoticed, and will emerge in His due time. Ikari-kun will take him as planned."

"Good, good. Thus the Scenario is safe. I will maintain command of Instrumentality. I will ascend."

Kaworu raised his eyes to the dead ones of his master, hunger plainly present in his crimson orbs. "And Ikari-kun?"

Lorenz smiled again. "He will be yours, to do with as you wish, forever."

If one were to look at both Lorenz and Nagisa side by side, and ignore such things as eye and hair coloration, they would look nothing alike. This was because they were, in fact, not related at all.

But the smiles they wore, the smiles of sick and twisted hunger, those were mirror images.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato woke up with a start to the pounding on the motel room's door. Her hand automatically closed around her .45, but let it go as she recognized Makoto's voice calling out for her. She opened the door on the excited technician, her esteem taking a small hit as the man she knew who had a bit of a crush on her not even noticing that she was only wearing a sports bra and her jeans, having been too tired to change before collapsing on the bed a few hours earlier.

"What is it?" She asked, watching him as he panted, trying to catch his breath.

"Its... it's a pattern blue!"

**Author's Notes:**

The bits about the geologists using muons to map out the interior of Mt. Asama is actually true. Here's the abstract on it:

adsabs. harvard. edu/abs/2007E&PSL.263..104T

To Da-Guru: It's actually in the Sandalphon period. :) But fear not, while there are no plans for any !Cannon and !MoF crossovers, the Leliel arc should not disappoint.


	28. Chapter 28

Asuka stared at the computer screen, looking at the egg that sat some fifteen kilometers away from them in an underground lake of liquid rock. As she leaned back in her chair, twirling a strand of hair around one finger, she flicked her eyes over at where the First Child was sitting in stony silence, staring impassively at her phone's screen, pointedly ignoring everything around her. If Asuka didn't know better, she would have sworn that the girl was sulking about something, as she had been less talkative than usual, which was a near impossibility in and of itself, and the few words that she had said were terse and sharp enough to draw blood. But what could the blue haired twit be sulking about? It wasn't as if she had been left behind in Tokyo-3 as an emergency measure. It wasn't as if she was missing out on a momentous occasion due to lackluster performance. It wasn't as if she was forced to put up with a sub-par teammate, one that dragged her down, that hung on her coat tails, getting her grubby hands on her better's fame.

_Maybe it's her time of the month. I mean, if this is all because she's been separated from that dummkopf, she's got some dependency issues. I mean, seriously, it's like she doesn't care that we're actually going on the offensive here. Going after an immature Angel means that we can possibly learn more about their life cycles, which means that we can try to figure out where they are liable to be 'born'. If we can associate a specific set of phenomena with a Proto-Angel, we can hopefully locate the others while they lie dormant or developing. I mean, we're developing new doctrine here, venturing into uncharted territory. Evangelion Warfare is taking a new path, and all she can do is sit there and frown!_

Asuka turned back to the screen, her eyes tracing through the complex of lava tubes and caverns that made up the volcano. Unfortunately, while they knew where the Angel was, there was nothing that they could do to actually get to the damn thing. It was submerged in a central lake, which lay underneath another cavern filled with magma, and that one sat underneath the main lava dome of the volcano. Even if the Evangelions could withstand the heat of the melted rock, and even if they could sink down into it, they still would not have the range to reach the egg, as there simply wasn't enough umbilical cable.

Despite this, Misato had made the call to deploy her two operational Evangelions here at the site in case the Angel woke up, citing that it was better to have forces on hand to fight an enemy that they knew was there, instead of leaving them back in the city. If another Angel appeared, they deemed that Shinji would be able to at least distract it until they could be redeployed. So while there was little for the pilots to do in their capacity as pilots, Asuka had been able to keep herself occupied with helping out the regular technicians and scientists with their studies of the egg. Rei, while not contributing anything to the discussion, other than suggesting that they detonate a series of N2 munitions on the volcano, had nonetheless been dragged out of the hotel room the pilots shared to the field operations base by Misato. Asuka wished that the girl would go and menstruate someplace else and leave them to work in peace.

Maya, sitting next to Asuka at the computer terminal, shook her head with a sigh. "Nothing we've done has gotten any sort of response. We've bombarded the area with the highest-intensity particle burts we can generate without the use of an actual weapons-grade emitter, but none of the readings have changed in the slightest."

Asuka nodded. "It's like the egg's location was purposely chosen to make it hard to get to. I mean, there's nothing physical we can do to it, and even gamma rays have trouble penetrating that far down, and even if they could with any reliability, the thing shrugs off muons, for Gott's sake. It's not like they would be able to do anything to it. At this point, seems like all we can do is wait for it to hatch and then beat the crap out of it until it dies. But there's no telling when that will be."

Maya drained the rest of her coffee in a single go, the liquid having long gone cold. "It's definitely not an ideal situation, despite being an incredible opportunity. We'll just have to keep doing what we've have been until we can come up with some new tests."

Rei looked over at the two others, her face an unreadable mask. "If all there is to do is to wait, I can wait quite well in Tokyo-3." She got up to her feet and headed for the door. "I will inform Captain Katsuragi that I will return to base."

Maya shot an uneasy look at Asuka as the redhead whistled a low tone. "The Captain is not going to like that."

Asuka shook her head. "Misato is going to to tear her a new one. Arguing with her when she's like this is no good." She looked around the empty room, and then back at the monitors. They were set up in an out of the way conference room, and they were the only ones currently on shift in the power station. The other on-duty personnel were out on site at the volcano, working on trying to elicit a response from the buried egg. "You know," Asuka said with a wink as she slid up next to Maya, running a hand through her hair, "the next batch of tests isn't for some time. And we're all alone."

Maya blushed, but swatted the girl's hand away. "I don't think that this is a good time or place for that, Asuka."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

NERV-Central prided itself on being able to provide as many services as possible for it's employees on location in the Geo-Front. To this end, there were several gymnasiums scattered over the different levels available to regular personnel. One gym in particular was popular with the men and women of Section 2, and as with several other different establishments both within the Geo-Front and Tokyo-3, they had appropriated it for their own use. It wasn't that people outside the security division were barred from the place per se, but everyone knew that the gym on Level B16 Section 5 Sub-Section 3A belonged to Section 2. Others just didn't go there.

Kaji, while technically assigned to Section 2, was also not completely accepted by the shadowy superiors of the division, who reported only to Gendo himself. That being said, he exercised regularly at the gym. He didn't have a set schedule, so it had raised no flags when he showed up in the early morning to hit the weight room. Being a friendly fellow, he offered to spot another agent who was currently working at the bench press. They made minor chit-chat, as was usual between any number of 'gym buddies'. But amidst the innocent banter, information was traded and secrets were secrets no more.

"The Institute is a dead end," the man known only as Thirty-One said as he pushed the bar up, "you should try looking into her home. Once you see the emptiness there, you'll understand. Apart from a few books, there's nothing there that she's had for over a year, and most of what she does have now she's only gotten after the Third Child arrived. She came from nowhere, with nothing. One day she wasn't, and then one day she was."

Kaji's eyes narrowed as he watched the man effortlessly bench the weights. "That's nonsense. Everyone comes from somewhere. Even Ikari has a trail, even though it's been purposely obscured."

"That's what I'm saying. There is no trail. She never arrived here. She was always here. She's always belonged to NERV."

"What's the security complement for her apartment?"

"It's low right now, since she's out of town. Only five men. You shouldn't have any problems getting in. Apartment 402. It's not locked, the lock is broken."

"Is there anything else you can give me, other than just some vague clues?"

Thirty-One grunted as he pushed the bar back up. "I'm telling you what I can risk based off of what you're paying. Section 2 doesn't have a separate Internal Investigations department. We're self-regulating. If I'm found out, my life isn't worth jack. The way I figure it, you're paying enough for something to get started on. If you're smart, you can figure out more. But," he said conversationally, "to be completely honest, I also don't know a whole lot more. I've only ever been on the girl's security group twice."

"Do me a favor then, and try to find out about Adam. I'll pay very well, rest assured."

"Adam? Adam who?"

Kaji grinned down at the man. "Just Adam. There is some connection to the girl, but I'm not sure what. But for the moment Adam lies with the Commander."

"How well are you paying?"

"For solid info on Adam? Six times what I'm paying you right now. But it has to be good information. My own superiors won't dole out good money for insubstantial leads."

Thirty-One grunted as they racked the weights. "I'll look into it and let you know what I find out."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei fumed as she aimlessly stalked through the power plant. Her request to be allowed to return to Tokyo-3 had been immediately shot down by the Captain, and when she had protested, she had been ordered to drop it and to not worry about the boy, but rather focus on the task at hand. Captain Katsuragi had then ignored her, turning back to argue with members of the JSSDF.

_Fine. I will not worry about Shinji. I will figure out how to deal with the Angel so that we may return home. _As she circulated through the geothermal power plant and volcanic research facility, her crimson gaze washed over the various resources on hand, taking stock of what was available. If she could not make her point with reason, she would make it with Science.

_While it is understandable that they would not wish to simply detonate N2 munitions in the vicinity of the volcano, we still need a way to either disrupt or destroy the Angel's egg. We cannot physically reach the egg itself, therefore capturing it is out of the question._

_While their particle sensors report that the muons have difficulty in penetrating it, a sort of particle weapon remains the best, if not only, option. While the power availability here is not an issue, it will take some time to make the necessary modifications to any of our existing weapons to allow them to make full use of the power grid without damage. While not much of an inconvenience from a purely operational standpoint, it is one for me. _

As Rei rounded a corner, a sign caught her eye. OSHA compliance signs were designed to do just that, in order to make people aware of the hazards posed by various pieces of equipment and chemicals. But the simple designs and bright colors of the numerous safety signs were not what drew the girl's attention; it was the much plainer sign that sat at the top of the danger markers. In boring white letters on a steel gray plate bolted to the door read 'Argon LASER Drill Storage'.

Rei cocked her head slightly to the left as the wheels began to turn.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato frowned at the conglomeration of pipes, circuit boards, wires and various things that she could only describe as 'sciencey stuff' that took up the majority of the conference room table. Chief Technician Isobe had a pale look on his face, no doubt from the realization that the teenager had cobbled the thing together from at least two high-tech pieces of equipment. Equipment that had belonged to him. Equipment that he was going to have to try to get NERV to replace. Asuka and Ritsuko, on the other hand, stared at the thing's creator, who stood off to the side, still wearing an appropriated lab-coat and a pair of welder's goggles, which were pushed up on her head, sending the unruly mop of blue hair into further disarray. Behind these four, several technicians from both NERV and the geothermal power station and research center murmured in hushed voices, not sure what they were looking at.

"Rei," Misato began, her voice cautious, her mind going back to the note in the girl's file, the one about her burning down the building in the Geo-Front, "What is this?" While nothing in the assembly **looked** like it produced fire, there were several industrial grade compressed gas canisters hooked up to various tubes.

Rei focused on the Operations Director. Swinging her arms around to her back, one hand clutching the elbow of the other arm, she addressed the group in what could have been called a bored tone, if it had been coming from anyone else. For the girl, however, it was her speaking normally.

"This is a prototype AT Field Focusing and Directional Tunneling Array. It makes use of several high intensity Argon LASER Drill components and the AT Field emitter array from the Evangelions in order to drastically extend the range and strength of a given AT Field."

Misato held up a hand to silence the others. "A laser drill?" She turned to Isobe. "Why didn't you tell me that you had a laser drill? That sounds like it could have been useful when it was still put together."

Rei interrupted the harried technician before he could do more than draw in a quick breath. "The Argon LASER Drill would have been of no use as a means of contacting the Angel, Captain Katsuragi. The drill's beam would have lost coherency well before reaching the egg, due to it's current depth in the magma. However, the AT field is not constrained by the same physical laws as the drill."

Ritsuko began to nod, a smile beginning to spread across her face. "And even if the beam was able to reach the egg, there's no guarantee that it would even have an effect on it, as it's already sitting in the magma. But Angels do react to AT Fields."

"Correct, Doctor. There is no need for a proof of concept for the ATFFDTA, as the principle technology has already been produced and manufactured. The latest shipment of melee weapons from NERV-Moscow utilize the AT Field manipulation emitter and focus array. This," she said with a slight nod to the setup, "merely re-purposes that same technology with the power amplifying systems of the Argon drill, as well as providing a super-structure to house the array, as well as the active cooling system."

Asuka narrowed her eyes as she shifted them from the girl to her prototype and then back again. As she began to slowly walk around the table, inspecting the setup from all sides, she pointed at the water cooling system. "Water cooling won't work on a device on the scale of the Evangelions, First. You're still using the Argon laser ion tubes as part of the amplifiers. Even on a small scale, those things pump out a lot of waste heat. Once this is scaled up to the Evangelion's size, the amount of heat coming off of it will be like taking a dip in the lava of the damn volcano!"

Rei looked coolly at her wingman. "I calculated that the heat will be less than that which was endured by both Evangelions Unit-01 and Unit-00 during the attack on the Fifth Angel. It is survivable."

Ritsuko sighed inwardly as her newest protege erupted. "That was a point attack, dummkopf! This is going to be all over you!" The girl switched over into German, waving her arms around as she ranted about the First Child's idiocy. "Mit derartigen Methoden bringt man sich nur selbst um oder gefährdet die gesamte Ausrüstung! Es ist kaum zu zu glauben, dass eine solche Technik überhaupt in Betracht gezogen wird. Da draußen herrschen ja nicht gerade normale Laborbedingungen. Ich meine, wie kann jemand denn nur so beschissen blöde sein?" Judging by the shocked gasps of several of the people clustered around the edges of the room, several people knew the language, which wasn't that surprising, as it was one of three languages associated with scientific progress and study.

Misato cut the girl off with a glare and pointed cough. Turning to Ritsuko, she nodded at the science project. "Will it work?"

Ritsuko shrugged, tucking her hands in the pockets of her own lab-coat. "It has the potential to work. Even if the Angel doesn't react to being poked by the AT Field, we would be able to slowly bring it up to the surface, or at least to a depth where we could actually do some work on it. It would take some time to assemble, though. This is a research center, not a manufacturing site."

Maya spoke up from behind her superior. "We're not faced with a time constraint though. It should be too easy for the Engineering Division to set up shop here, or to build it the components and assemble them here." She pointed to the part where the Evangelion would plug into the superstructure, represented by a miniature Nicholas Tesla action figure taken from the gift shop. "They would need to be here to build and fine-tune that anyways."

Turning back to Rei, Misato clapped a congratulatory hand on the girl's shoulder. "Good work, Rei. Get your blueprints together, and I'll have them taken back to headquarters."

Rei blinked. "Blueprints?"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

_It's strange, _Shinji thought to himself as he sat in the mostly empty apartment, alone except for the company of the hot springs penguin, _at how fast a person can adapt to changes in their environment. I don't think that I would've ever said that I missed having other people around, even if they were like Asuka, or even Miss Misato. _

It had been a little over a week since the girls had been summoned to the remote site, the location still being kept a secret, along with all other information about their activities there being highly classified. Shinji had been left to fend for himself as far as his regular day to day routine went, although one of his security detail had offered him transportation around town.

While a nice gesture, and one that prompted an uneasy grin and heartfelt thanks from the boy, it was ultimately an unneeded one. The medical staff left in charge by Dr. Akagi had declared that the growth spurt had run it's course, and had fitted him with a new leg, thus restoring his mobility.

Shinji absently ate his dinner, which was, surprisingly enough, a package of instant noodles, smothered in one of Misato's curry sludges, albeit with some of his improvements. It most certainly was not something anyone even passingly familiar with his eating habits would expect to find him eating. His choice of dinner entertainment, however, was much more in line with the image people had of him; instead of watching the television or listening to the radio, he was reading a book Rei had lent to him. Rather than one of her books on one manner of science or another, it was a book of poetry.

_I miss Rei, _Shinji thought forlornly, looking back up to the digital clock on the microwave, only to sigh as only a few minutes had passed since the last time that he had checked. _I wonder how her day's been. _

Due to new security constraints, the girls' phones had been confiscated a few days ago. Rei did send him an email each evening, and while her messages short and to the point (sounding exactly like how she talked), the boy was able to decipher the girl's subtle moods without much conscious thought or effort. Most of what she and the rest of the crew had been doing was just waiting and make-work, apparently, but even if anything interesting had been going on, revealing it would have been a breach of security, even on the MAGI link. He didn't believe that she would lie to him, though.

Even so, the daily update was the highlight of Shinji's day, and he knew that she liked to hear about how he was doing/ In fact, she continued to instruct him to not over exert himself and to obtain the assistance of his security detail whenever he needed anything. She also told him to maintain the same level of caloric and nutrient intake as before. It was clear to the boy that Rei did not trust the judgment of the other staff, and he suspected that upon her arrival home she would subjugate him to another battery of 'biological and medical measurements'.

To tell the truth, he was actually looking forwards to it.

Looking back up at the clock to check the slow passage of time, the calendar on the wall caught his eye. Despite the lack of significant snowfall anywhere in Japan except in the highest mountains since Second Impact, the picture for the month of December was one of a traditional winter scene, being a cluster of cheerful snowmen. Automatically, his gaze drifted across the neat row of lines that marked of the days that had passed, and then went straight to the twenty-fifth, which was easy to find as it was marked in red instead of black.

_If Miss Misato were here, she'd be planning another party. She'd go on about how 'it's not really Christmas if you're not partying', and stuff. _Shinji grinned as he shoveled another lump of noodles into his mouth. _She'd also get the entire building covered in those little lights. Maybe even some plastic decorations along the front walkway. _

_'Of course we need a tree, Shinji!', _he could almost hear her say, _'It's traditional!'. Asuka would go off about the holiday's history, no doubt. She'd also probably demand presents from everyone._

While Shinji couldn't remember ever actually getting a present for Christmas (or even celebrating it other than saying 'Merry Christmas' instead of 'Hello' or 'Good Morning'), he wasn't so introverted that he wasn't aware of the 'socially expected and accepted activities', as his friend would describe them.

_Rei would probably point out that while it's a social norm to exchange presents, that it's highly inefficient in trying to guess what the other person would like instead of asking them what they want, or just giving them money. But she'd let Hikari or Miss Misato push her into participating and adhering to the 'social norm'._

His grin froze on his face as realization struck him. While he suspected that they were off dealing with an Angel, somehow (for what else could demand the presence of the main command, technical and engineering staff, along with **two** Pilots with their Evangelions?), he had no idea of when they would be back. While he had of course been thinking about what he should get Rei, having adapted well enough to their strange relationship to ignore the obvious connotations the act of giving her a gift implied, he hadn't actually dedicated a lot of time to it, instead using his free time to clean and then to re-clean the apartment, as well as to read the stack of books the girl had lent him prior to her departure.

He was due for an activation test tomorrow after the first day of class, their trip being over, but the day after that was clear, as was his mission.

He would have to face the holiday shopping crowds, and get the perfect gift for Rei.

Shinji removed the glasses he was wearing, and set the book down on the table as he stood up. He would clean the dishes and take a shower, and go to sleep early.

He suspected that the next day was going to be a long one.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka looked up from her own laptop as her room-mate's sounded with the NERV-OS's 'sent email' chime. The redhead grinned knowingly at Rei, who ignored the other girl as she closed the laptop and set it back into it's carrying case and pulled out a book, settling back against the wall.

"So how's your boyfriend? Is he able to take care of himself without you being around?"

Rei shot a cool gaze over the top of her book at Asuka. "Pilot Ikari is not my 'boyfriend'. While he is indeed a boy, and he is my friend, we have not entered into the social contract of 'going steady' nor have we participated in the usual social and romantic activities that accompanies such a relationship."

Asuka, smirking, stretched out languidly on her bed. "Oh? So he's free?"

Rei blinked in confusion, and lowered the book to her lap. "Free?"

"Free," Asuka repeated, looking like the Cheshire cat, "Single. Unattached. Going Stag. Open," she paused infinitesimally, "Game." She concluded the list with a suggestive smack of her lips and a lusty sigh.

"**No**." Rei blurted, her eyes fractionally wider than usual, "No, he is **not**."

Putting on an air of puzzlement, Asuka cocked her head to one side, something that she had picked up from Rei during their synchronization drills. "But I thought that you said that you two weren't going out? Is he seeing someone else? I didn't think that he even knew anyone else besides us."

"No. He is not seeing anyone else." Her eyes narrowed again, this time in understanding. "You are trying to upset me." Rei raised her book again, beginning to read. "It will not work."

Asuka grinned again, turning back to her laptop. After typing away for a few minutes in silence, she looked back up towards Rei.

"So, you're saying that he's _not_ free?"

The only response that the blue haired girl gave was a look that would have been more deadly than the argon laser, had it been hooked up to the AT-Field amplifiers.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

The dark room echoed with the monolith's distorted voice, sending shivers down Kozo Fuytusuki's spine as he waited silently in the darkness, away from the pool of light that bathed the desk that Gendo sat at in a pale glow. The voices usually did that to him, and he suspected that the booming and modulated voices were engineered to elicit the effect. His protege showed no sign of discomfort, however.

"Has there been any progress on the Asama site?"

"No," Gendo replied tonelessly, "There has been no further progress with the current experiments, however work continues on the construction of the AT Field projection and focusing array according to schedule. The main portion of the operation is still set to take place in four days."

"It has been almost two weeks since this current plan has gone into operation. Two weeks of manpower and money being spent, with little to no return on the investment, Ikari. Are you certain that this plan will work?"

"It has the best chance of working out of any other plan that has been brought up," Gendo replied, sounding like he wanted to shrug, prompting a sharp grin to appear on Kozo's face. "The only other option would be to leave the Evangelions there on standby until it 'wakes up'. Operation Henhouse is the more expedient of the two."

One of the other monoliths chimed in, for once on the same side as NERV's Commander. "If the operation is a success, it will net us much in the way of information about our enemies. This is just another long term investment."

"An investment without a known rate of return is not a wise investment."

The center slab, the one that served as the mask for Kiel Lorenz, spoke again and put an end to the back and forth argument. "In any event, we shall keep a careful eye on the site and see what unfolds. The rest of the meeting does not concern you, Ikari."

As one, the monoliths winked out of existence.

Gendo pushed himself to his feet as Kozo stepped out of the shadows. Wordlessly, they left the conference room and started walking towards the elevator. Two men in suits followed at a discrete distance, but they did not enter the lift with their charges.

Gendo broke the silence first, tucking his hands into his pockets as he went into the familiar slouch that neither Yui nor time had broken him of.

"How goes the work with ADAM?"

Kozo leaned up against the mirrored wall. "Slower, now that Dr. Akagi is off-site, but everything should be ready to go in a few weeks. Final testing is currently scheduled to begin in three days. Once that's done, all we need to do is wait for the Doctor and the First Child to return."

Gendo nodded absently, staring at the floor. "What of our other guest? I trust that he is making good use of his time here?"

"He had made several assets in various departments, some that we had suspected and a few we hadn't. It appears that he has completely stopped looking into the Marduk Institute, but he still manages to drop off the grid periodically, so our knowledge of his investigations is incomplete."

"Does Section 2 have an idea of his new focus? He is doggedly persistent, and we don't need him finding out things that he shouldn't. I still have a use for him, and it would be a shame to have to take him off the playing field early."

Kozo coughed nervously, clearly uncomfortable. "He's investigating Rei."

The news didn't elicit a reaction from the Commander, the bearded man mulling over the news in silence. Finally shrugging, he pulled a hand out of a pocket to push his glasses back up his nose. "Interesting, but his efforts will be fruitless. The girl has no history outside of NERV, and even within it, it's sparse. Is there anything else of note?"

"Nothing major, except that Dr. Vanterian says that while the Third Child is completely fit for duty, he needs glasses. Not permanently, but just for reading."

"Is that so?" Gendo looked up from the floor to the ceiling, his face expressionless. "I suppose that it was only a matter of time. Yui wore reading glasses as well."

"And these days you're as blind as a bat without yours."

"True. But I had hoped that with the modifications, he wouldn't need them."

"Eyes are a tricky thing. We wasted a lot of time on Rei's, if you remember."

Gendo waved the older man's comment off. "Her problems were pigmentation, not functionality."

Kozo shrugged. "I suppose we can chalk it up to being another thing that we don't understand. One must expect these things when playing in God's domain."

"Science will save us, Kozo. We have taken God's domain for our own, now, and it is through our works, our abilities, that we will prevail."

"This whole mess got started because Man wanted God's domain for his own," Kozo countered, "As impressive as our own achievements might be, we still haven't been able to fully match, let alone exceed, the Angels. Our creations are as imperfect as we are."

The elevator doors opened, and the men stepped out into the hallway, pausing at the large bay window that overlooked the Evangelion Simulator, where the bio-mechanical nightmare that served as the body for the virtual reality training sat. Various technicians, their breath steaming in the frosty room, moved from area to area around the skeletal torso, keeping a careful watch on things as the Third Child was put through his paces, seeing how much muscle memory he had retained during his little 'vacation' from the active duty roster.

Not taking his eyes off the section of Entry Plug visible beneath muscle, bone, and metal, Gendo frowned.

"It's true, that we haven't made anything that is a match for the Angels." His frown disappeared, becoming a small, arrogant smirk as he watched his son train for the inevitable battles that awaited him. He turned, still smirking, towards his friend, the overhead lights catching on his glasses and obscuring the cold eyes behind them.

"Yet."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka was bored, tired of waiting for the technicians to finish assembling the monstrosity that Rei had designed. It had been almost two weeks since they had started, and there had been little for her to do. Maya was always busy with their Sempai, and the pair of them were constantly busy with either the construction project or keeping an eye on the nascent Angel. She could only spend so much time a day practicing with the human size swords that she had managed to procure, and the Evangelions were on a strict standby mode, which meant that she wasn't able to tinker with her Unit-02. As such, she was prowling around the section of the facility that NERV had taken over, looking for something to do. She smiled to herself as she saw the blue haired pilot standing at the windows that overlooked the area where the major components were being constructed. Taking care to move silently, Asuka crept up on the girl, who was focused with laser-like intensity on the work being carried out below.

"What's up Rei?"

To the redhead's great annoyance, the girl didn't even bat an eyelash at her, remaining as she was, one elbow clasped by her hand behind her back, crimson eyes tracking different men and women as they moved about, all with the slightest frown on her face.

"Up is a preposition, Pilot Soryu." There was the slightest pause as Asuka gave her teammate a flat look before Rei continued, still watching the activity before them. "I am watching the construction of the ATFFDTA. What is it that you require?"

"Oh, nothing from you, Wondergirl. I was just checking up on things." Asuka frowned slightly as the other girl continued to ignore her. "What's got your panties all in a twist? They've decided to go along with your insane plan. You should be happy." Asuka paused, and turned back to watch the construction below. "Or is it because the techs won't let you near the actual construction? Or is it because he's not here?"

Rei turned to stare at Asuka, looking the redhead dead in the eyes. "They're doing it **wrong**."

"Huh?" Asuka asked, confused. She turned and looked at the technicians and then back to Rei. "Who is doing what wrong?"

Rei looked pointedly in the direction of the main portion of the assembly. "They are building it wrong."

"Wrong?" Asuka queried, confused. "It's your design, isn't it? How are they building it wrong?"

Rei shook her head irritably. "I am unable to explain it. They are just doing it wrong."

Rolling her eyes, the redhead sighed. "If you can't explain how they are 'doing it wrong', then they can't be doing anything wrong, especially if they are following the directions that **you** gave them in the first place!"

Rei frowned at her wing-man, her eyes narrowed. "You clearly don't understand. I thought that you were supposed to be good at Science, but if you can't tell when **they are ruining your experiments**," she said, her voice raising an octave and causing Asuka to back away slightly as the crazed girl pointed at the technicians, "then I obviously I was mistaken."

"What the hell does that mean?" Asuka snapped, incensed. "The last time **I **checked, **I** was the one who had graduated with honors from a university! You don't even pay attention in class! And designing that ridiculous array isn't science! That's engineering! You can't be a scientist unless you do actual research! It's not building toys that generate lightning, or having flasks of mysterious bubbling chemicals! That's not real research! That's not real science!" She paused momentarily, then grinned as realization flashed in her eyes. "You pretend to be a scientist because the Commander was one! But you fail at that like you do everything else! A pretend girl, with a pretend relationship, a pretend pilot, and a pretend scientist."

Asuka's grin deepened as she was rewarded with real anger flashing in the girl's crimson eyes, which doubled as she caught Rei's hand by the wrist as she flung it up to slap her.

"Not so fast!" she said, putting her training to use and twisting the girl around, trapping her arms. "It's funny, you know... that being told that you're a pretend scientist pisses you off more than me teasing you in front of the idiot," Asuka whispered into Rei's ear, grinning at the sharp intake of breath. "Don't worry. I won't tell him that he takes second place to a textbook or a foolish delusion of grandeur."

"You're wrong."

"I'm what?" Asuka responded pleasantly. "Wrong? Wrong about what? That you're a doll? That you're a fake person? That you're a big fake fakey faker? Ohh, I don't think that I am." She pushed Rei forwards as she released her, and the blue haired girl spun around to glare at her, hands balled into fists at her sides.

"You're wrong about everything. About me, about Pilot Ikari, about the Evangelions, and about Science."

"You don't actually think that, do you? You haven't even kissed the idiot! You two idiots haven't the faintest clue as to what you're doing, First **Child**," she sneered, stressing the last word. "Do you need a biology book or an instruction manual for the boy? Here, I'll give you a tip- Insert Tab A into Slot B!"

"You're wrong. You're wrong and-"

"If I'm wrong, prove it." The redhead sneered, crossing her arms.

"I will. I will prove that you're wrong." Rei's voice sounded deader than usual, despite still being louder than normal. "I will prove you wrong and then you will see that-"

"You're mad!" Asuka scoffed, turning to leave, ignoring the girl's further protests. She scowled all the way back to her room. Baiting Rei wasn't even fun anymore, and the redhead hoped that they would be able to kick off the mission soon, otherwise she was liable to go insane.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

The operation, as Rei would later remark in her report, had been going fine up until the moment that the volcano erupted.

"I have lost contact with the egg." she calmly remarked, watching the thick plumes of ash lift high up into sky, as clumps of cooling lava began to rain down as the mile high spray of molten rock continued unabated. "There was no indication of movement or response from the target."

The somewhat panicked voice of Lieutenant Ibuki came over the net, collaborating the pilot's statement. "None of the sensors picked anything up; no seismic activity or any movement from the egg!"

"Well, something happened!" Asuka shouted, her Evangelion pointing at the tide of lava making it's way down the sides of the mountain. She was using her AT Field as a sort of umbrella, shielding herself from the deadly rain. "Are any of the sensors even still up-"

The pilot was cut off as the ground heaved and buckled beneath them, sending the red titan to it's knees. Unit-00, held secure in the massive superstructure, felt the vibrations, but was otherwise unaffected.

The sky was growing dark, the clouds of ash spreading out to block the sun, and through her connection with Unit-00, Rei felt the static in the air moments before the first bolts of lightning began to spark, brilliant purple-white flashes that served as a counterpoint to the bright red lines that were tracing down the mountain, or the orange-white of the airborne spray.

Captain Katsuragi came over the net, calling for all personnel to evacuate the area. "Asuka, you'll have to help Rei get out of the super-structure. We don't have time for the crews to disassemble it properly, but-" The woman was cut off as a new, but familiar, alarm began to blare. "Girls, we have an Angel Alert! It's own the move!"

The earth shook again, and the volcano shuddered. The side of the mountain seemed to shake itself apart and cave in, only to violently explode outward. Rocks, lava and ash went flying high as a glowing figure, huge despite the fact that it was still kilometers away, clawed it's way out to the surface. The thing let out a mighty roar that griped the hearts of all who heard it.

With a sound like wet cloth tearing, large bat-like wings sprouted from the Angel's back. The massive figure leapt into the sky, tracing a burning arc through the ash clouds behind it as its body began to cool.

"Drache!" Asuka whispered into her microphone. "Drache! Drache!" Rei turned to look quizzically at the red Evangelion, which had drawn itself up into a low crouch, one hand flat on the ground and the other grasping the hilt of the massive sword that the girl had opted to carry for the day's mission. The four eyed head turned and tracked the Angel, even as it's pilot continued to laugh into the microphone, prattling on in German.

"Pilot Soryu, what is Drache?" Rei asked, wrapping her mouth around the foreign word.

"It's a Dragon! It's a Dragon, Wondergirl! Motherfucking Smaug up in this bitch!" The girl continued to laugh. "No, wait! Not Smaug! Fafnir!"

"Pilot Soryu, you are not making any sense." Rei commented as she turned Unit-00's head back to watch the glowing figure trace a lazy circle in the sky above them as the communications net crackled with Misato's voice.

"Girls, We've got to ground that thing! We can't let it get away, not with Shinji being by himself back at Tokyo-3! Engage it at will, no restrictions!" There was a brief pause, barely a heartbeat in length before Mistato continued. "Any collateral damage can be blamed on the volcanic eruption. Just kill the Angel!"

Asuka, needing no further invitation to attack, threw herself into action, pounding across the eight hundred meter distance to the abandoned flatbed that held the MK 6 Pallet Rifle, even as she almost sang a response back to her commanding officer.

"Not an Angel, Misato! A dragon!"

Tucking the but of the rifle into the Evangelion's shoulder pocket, she took careful aim, the sensor suite of her war machine more than capable of tracking the Draconian Angel even though it was now almost invisible to the naked eye. Grinning, she squeezed the trigger, sending a short burst of tungsten cored rounds up into the sky, and was rewarded with the characteristic flash of yellow hexagons as the Angel's AT Field manifested to defend itself.

Asuka immediately threw herself into a left roll, and successfully evaded the the massive gout of fire that the Angel spat at her as it dived towards the earth.

"Well, I've got it's attention!" She announced over the net, not sure if anyone was still monitoring it what with the massive amounts of distortion the ash clouds had to be churning out. She didn't care if anyone was listening however, as the on-board recorders would faithfully record her running commentary for the eventual report, thus showcasing her genius once again. Best of all, with the dunce back at headquarters and the doll tied up in that bizarre contraption of hers, there was no one to steal the spotlight this time.

This was her chance, this was Asuka's time to shine.

Flipping her system to include her external speakers, she sent another volley of rounds skyward, calling for the dragon as she danced through the fires of it's first assault, taking care to avoid getting her umbilical cable tied up in a knot.

"Oh, Lindwurm! Komme Sie hier!"

The Angel screamed again, it's roar frightening, but a detached part of the German pilot's mind noted that it wasn't as intimidating as the bestial roars of the purple and green Evangelion. "Is that the best you can do?" She called, her tone sickly-sweet. "I know little boys who roar louder than you!" She fired off the rest of her magazine in a sweeping Z pattern, the super-sonic rounds punching holes through clouds that allowed brief flashes of sunlight to play across the hellish landscape. Asuka dropped the magazine as she leapt back towards the supply trucks and the spare magazines and ranged weapons.

The Angel chose that moment to dive again, and Asuka was treated to a front-seat view of the massive monstrosity as it swooped in at her, it's forelimbs host to a set of murderously brutal pair of claws. Throwing herself flat against the ground, she flashed her own AT Field into full strength across her back, glad that the technicians had given into her persistent bullying and had added the extra emitters to the rear shoulders.

While she was protected against the assault, the Angel did not fly off again, but instead flapped around her, keeping her pinned to the ground. Cursing, she rolled over, arching her back to protect the vital umbilical plug, and reflashed the defensive field into a half sphere over her, in an attempt to erode the Angel's own.

The Angel's mouth snapped at her as they grappled with each other, the bulk of the creature keeping her pinned. Asuka wasn't completely without options, however, as the original designers (and she herself) had anticipated such a melee.

"Guess what I have in my pockets, Smaug! I'll give you a hint, it's not a ring!"

As she spoke almost casually to the Dragon, the spike thrower in the upper left shoulder pylon popped open and the Angel was treated to a face full of sharpened spikes, and hot blood sprayed across the Evangelion's face in a wave of dark blue, staining the red paint into a light purple.

The assault had no other measurable effect, however, and Asuka was starting to worry about her ability to keep the added weight of the beast from smashing her back flat against the ground when Rei's quiet voice came over the net, heavily distorted despite her being relatively near the struggling titans.

"Pilot Soryu, please set your optical sensors to ninety percent tint."

"Why?" the irate girl snapped back at the other pilot. "I kinda need to be able to see the damn thing in order to fight it!"

"I am going to blind the Angel, Pilot Soryu. I am going to blind it," Rei paused as she set the last switch on the Argon laser system, "with SCIENCE." Rei pushed the button, one of the pilot configurable command inputs, with the smallest, tightest, and most satisfied of smiles. The hum of the eight Argon lasers, termed as extraneous and unnecessary by the technicians and her wingman, was loud enough to be heard through Unit-00's armor even without Unit-00's external audio pickups being activated. Blinding blue-green light tore across the battlefield, splashing over the two combatants and continuing on towards the mountainside.

"OH SHIESSE!" Asuka screamed, frantically dropping her optical sensors down to the lowest levels she could without actually turning them off. The Angel screamed in similar fury and surprise, flinging itself back and off of Unit-02, shaking it's head back and forth. The brilliant light died, and Asuka snapped her system back into full operation, launching herself at the stunned Angel with a massive hay-maker, noting that the thing's eye sockets, currently home to a pair of smoking, crisped orbs, were already bubbling as the ubiquitous healing abilities of the Angels came into play. This Angel was healing much faster than the others had.

She brought her right hand back towards her shoulder, launching the reserve progressive knife into her fist, and brought it down across one wing as she head-butted the Angel. Infuriated, it kicked at her, the wicked claws slashing across Unit-02's chest, scoring deep cuts in the reenforced armor. Asuka hissed in pain as she brought the humming blade back into the Angel's midsection, right about where a human's kidneys would be, if the Angel were a man on all fours.

The Angel squirmed out of her grasp, rolling and flopping around as it tried to fly away with the injured wing, which, like it's eyes, was already starting to heal. Asuka leapt back to her feet and dove towards the trucks, both hands closing around another rifle. Bringing it up as she twisted back around to face her foe, she sent more super sonic rounds at the Angel as Rei fired the modified drilling equipment again, prompting a new round of screamed curses from the redhead.

"Where was my fucking warning that time, you stupid bitch?" Asuka rubbed her eyes with one hand, using the other to hold Unit-02 on her previous command, draining the weapon's magazine dry in a matter of seconds, spraying the last rounds in a blind pattern.

"I am keeping it occupied, Pilot Soryu, so you may resupply." The blue haired girl commented quietly, her voice infuriatingly calm. "I announced that I was about to fire again three seconds before I did so, and you were not facing the Angel at the time."

"You need to be louder, you menstruating twat! Just because you're all cramped and bloated, don't take it out on me when we're in combat!"

"I do not understand what you are implying, Pilot Soryu. I am not menstruating at this time."

Asuka screamed as she threw the depleted rifle at the Angel, the weighty weapon smashing into it's face as she grabbed the rocket launcher, only half listening as the other girl spoke up again, still only barely audible over the hiss of static. "In any event, the laser systems require time to cool down before I can use them again. The coolant systems are over tasked at the moment, due in no small part to the spike in local ambient temperature."

Asuka shot a quick glance at her own thermometers as she sent a salvo of Patriot missiles at the thrashing Angel, and noted that the outside temperatures had indeed gone up quite a bit from before, even if she factored in the encroaching lava flow, of which the leading edges were still a little ways off.

"It's the Angel!" She exclaimed, chucking the empty launcher at the dragon, which was now flopping around like a fish out of water, it's healing abilities clearly over taxed. The ground beneath the Angel was blackening, turning to ash and charcoal. "It must be causing an exothermic reaction in the local area, maybe as a byproduct of it's healing ability." Picking up the now empty truck, she threw it at the Angel as she bounded back through the flames towards the abandoned sword. She grinned again as her hand closed around the hilt, beginning to stand up. "Now it's time to end-" She was cut off as the Angel slammed into her, it's powerful tail battering her to the ground as it took back to the air.

"Shit, Shit, Shit!" Asuka screamed, bringing the long blade up, scoring a minor hit on the Angel, but nothing substantial. She turned and dove as it twisted around in the air like an eel in water to spit gouts of fire at her, before disappearing into the gloom. The fire licked at the tumbling giant, scorching the earth and causing the concrete to melt and pool around the cyborg's feet.

Asuka frowned as she glanced around the battlefield, planning out her next moves, her mind racing.

_Rei is less than useless stuck in that contraption of hers. I'm down to about half of my ranged weapons, and my sword. The lava will reach this area in about eight minutes. After that, I can't count on having external power, so I've got roughly thirteen minutes to find and kill the Dragon. _

Her frown shifted into a smile as a plan began to take shape in her mind, all of the component pieces falling neatly into place. The plan was good- no, the plan was more than that. It was perfect, and it didn't call for any silly backup fighters to come in to help kill the beast.

Gripping the sword in both hands, she brought herself into the back guard, and switching her visual sensor suite to thermals with a regular visual spectrum overlay, and set the Evangelion's eyes to maximum brightness, the four lights cutting through the dark ash clouds like search beams, brilliant green light mixing oddly with the red glow of the lava and flickering orange of the fires.

"Rei, are you recording this?" Asuka asked with a grin on her face. "I want a picture of this to give to Kaji!" The only thing that came over the net was static, the thick ash fog disrupting even short range communications even as it clouded the sensors. Asuka hoped that the other girl would be able to record what was undoubtedly be a battle worthy of a new epic for mankind, but she had more important things to worry about than that. With a tight nod of her head, she set her plan into motion.

Unit-02 strode through the blackness of the ash clouds, it's viridian gaze sweeping back and forth as it's Pilot began to hunt.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Leaning back in his chair, Kozo sighed deeply before taking a sip of his tea. After setting the cup back down, he picked up his phone and called in to the main command deck to the current battle captain.

"How long until we have another satellite in the area?" He asked, studying the last frame of the previous visual transmission, frozen on his computer screen, the two Evangelions clearly visible as two blotches of heat, just barely discernible against the background temperature. He frowned at the man's response. "What do the MAGI say? Do they think that the Angel will come here, or will it remain and fight?"

The answer to his question did not come from the command deck; rather it came from the man who stood slouched in the doorway to his office.

"It will come here, of course. It is drawn here, as are they all." Gendo smirked as his friend hung up on the battle captain. "The siren song they hear is far to alluring for it to remain at the site of it's birth for long. It will stay and fight only if they serve to impede it's progress, and nothing more."

Kozo quirked an eyebrow quizzically. "Oh? And how long do you think that the girls will impede it's progress?" he asked as he called up a picture of the Angel on the screen. "It has wings, you know. Won't it simply just fly away from any annoying hindrances?"

"I rather suspect that the pilot of Unit-02 will more than prove her worth today. The situation must certainly appeal to her. A lone fighter, with no backup; up against one of the Old Ones, the great wyrms of legend? It is an ancestral enemy for her, after all."

"No backup? Is it you or her that is discounting Rei's efforts in this battle?"

"Rei's efforts apparently are what woke the Angel up, if the preliminary telemetry is to be trusted. That... invention... of hers has managed to immobilize and disarm Unit-00. Despite the superfluous incorporation of the drilling lasers, which were of minor use in distracting the Angel, Unit-00 will be sitting on the sidelines as much as Unit-01 is."

"So you expect Asuka to prevail, then."

"She's capable, and she's hungry to prove herself. The only way that she'll let it get away from her is if she's dead." Gendo shook his head dismissively. "The question is just how much it will cost to clean up the area and repair the Evangelions."

"Since that's settled", Kozo remarked, his tone slightly sarcastic, "you still haven't told me what you think of Rei's little toy."

Gendo sighed, and shrugged. "I don't know what to think. I mean, we know that she's a bright girl, but I'm at a loss to explain it. Dr. Akagi wouldn't shut up about it in her last report, though. She likes it, but no matter how I look at it, all I can see is that stupid apartment building that she leveled." He paused, pushing his glasses back up his nose before removing them and wiping the lenses clean on the edge of his jacket. "Something's not right here, but..."

"But you're not sure what." Kozo suggested, leaning back in his chair. "Well, you can't say that building complicated and strange things doesn't run in the family."

Gendo shot a slightly disapproving look at his second in command as he replaced his glasses. "The most complicated thing Shinji has ever made is dinner." he said, his tone flatter than usual.

Their conversation was interrupted by the beeping of the telephone as the command deck called back down to Kozo's office. The shocked, breathless voice of the battle captain flooded the room.

"Sub-Commander, we have satellite coverage of the area again. I'm redirecting the feed to your station now."

True to the man's word, the computer screen blinked out, and then back in, showing the two men a bird's eye view of the site, prompting twin sharp intakes of breath from them.

Black clouds obscured most of the picture, but for some strange, unexplained reason there was a large circular area free of ash and smoke. It looked to be about a kilometer in diameter, and at it's center was the red Evangelion, fighting a bloody melee with the Angel. Off to the far edge of the clear patch, Unit-00 could be seen, a rifle in it's hands, crawling forth from a lava flow, it's paint burnt off and the metal armor glowing a dull red.

Unit-02 moved with a sudden burst of energetic violence, it's image blurring on the feed, dealing a telling blow to it's foe. A massive flood of blue sprayed over the Evangelion, and the feed disappeared in a blast of light, followed by nothing but static.

"Sir, we've lost the feed. We're trying to bring up another one now."

"Send the word to the air assets to get out to the site. Get visual confirmation that the Angel has been silenced. Initiate Pilot recovery operations as a priority matter, followed by Evangelion recovery."

"Yes Sir!"

Kozo looked back to the Commander. "Well, I suppose that you were right about that. They were victorious, but-"

"But at what cost?" Gendo suggested, shrugging nonchalantly. "As long as the Second Child survives in good shape, things will be fine. The Evangelions can be repaired. A new Rei can be brought online, if she does not survive. The scenario continues unabated. Now, I must go to report our latest victory to the old men."

"They won't be happy," Kozo warned. "The Angel woke up earlier than was foretold, and was likewise defeated. This could throw their plans off, and they'll try to take it out on you."

"And in other news, water is wet, the sky is blue, and fire is hot." Gendo shook his head. "I hope that this does throw their plans off. It would be a waste of resources if it didn't. If they're rattled, they'll make a mistake. I can exploit mistakes."

"Their first mistake was trusting you." Kozo observed with a wry smile. "But yes, hopefully they will make some more."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

When the Angel came roaring out of the ash clouds at the red Evangelion, it had changed color again, having finished healing itself and shedding the outer layer of protective scales.

When it had exploded out of the burning volcano, it had been glowing a bright red, the same hue as the lava that gushed from the wound in the earth like it's own fiery afterbirth. It's scales had rapidly cooled, taking on the appearance of charcoal, but that outer layer had been flaking off in bits and pieces throughout the fight.

Now the Angel appeared to be full grown, thrice as long as Unit-02 was tall, and out-massing it five times over. It's scales were of a bright iridescent red, covering it from the neck to tail. It's head was the familiar bone white, but where prior Angels had an avian cast to them, this Angel's visage made one think of dragons, with the many toothed maw, the upswept bone ridges that ran from over the eyes that burned like the very volcano to the thing's ears.

Asuka grinned savagely as she brought her sword up to meet the dragon's fore claws, blocking the wicked strike, and the flash of yellow gave proof that the AT Field emitters were still working as the protective energy shields clashed. Asuka idly wondered, not for the first time, how the Angels generated the fields, but pushed it to the back of her mind as the Angel snapped at her, teeth like bayonets mere inches from her face.

Rolling the sword in her hands, she amped up the power of it's projectors, and started to erode the Angel's field as she punched her foe in the snout. Huge bat-like wings battered at her, but she ignored them as she grappled with the Angel, scoring numerous stabs and slashes as she searched for it's one true weak spot, the core, as this dragon wore no waistcoat of gemstones with an easily spotted empty patch for some sure eyed hunter to aim for.

As it opened it's mouth to vomit fire at her, Asuka cursed as she caught sight of the crimson orb lying nestled in the back of the Angel's mouth.

"Of course it would be back there, it's just like the other one! Damn it!" She cried, turning to take the flames on one shoulder fin, her free hand shooting out to grab the serpentine neck, when a jolt ran through her as the five minute count-down clock began. Risking a quick look behind her as she tussled with the beast, she saw that the lava flow had reached them, and that her umbilical cord was done for.

Violently shoulder checking the Angel to the ground, she reversed her grip on the longsword, and thrust it down at the snapping mouth. An electric shock ran up through her arms as the weapon glanced off the jewel, causing her to stumble momentarily as she cursed again as the Angel lunged to it's feet, wings flapping as it began to take off.

Grabbing hold of one wing joint, she jerked her sword's hilt back and forth, smacking at the core with it's edge. Despite the extra weight of Unit-02, the Angel effortlessly lifted off the ground, massive wings sending the ash cloud into a churning maelstrom.

"Oh no you don't!" she screamed at the Angel, wrenching at the wing, then blinking suddenly as it reared it's head back, bellowing again as it pushed it's AT Field against her, but succeeding in doing nothing but sending the ash away from them, letting the bright sun shine down on them once more. Gritting her teeth as the timer started to run down on the last minute, she let go of the wing, and swung her entire weight onto the sword as she punched her free hand down into the dragon's mouth, clasping the core in a vice-like grip, jerking the sword into a tight circle, cutting at not the core, but the flesh around it as she dumped her entire AT Field into the sword, hissing in pain as wicked claws raked Unit-02's back.

Her gambit was rewarded with a flood of boiling blood gushing out around her arm as she jerked it back, core in hand. As soon as it cleared the Angel's mouth it exploded, the crucifix of light and energy throwing Unit-02 back to earth.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato sighed contentedly as she leaned back against the hot spring's wall. Looking over at Asuka, who was likewise relaxing in the hot water, she quirked an eyebrow at the redhead.

"So Asuka, what was that whole thing with the Angel's corpse? You really pissed Ritsuko off with that stunt, you know."

Asuka reddened slightly, rubbing the back of her head absently. "Ah, well, I didn't mean to irritate anyone," she said, ignoring the almost inaudible sniff that came from where Rei was sitting on the edge of the bath with her legs in the water. "I just got a little carried away, is all."

Misato laughed, splashing some water over at the redhead. "A little carried away? When we got back on site, you were showering Unit-02 in the Angel's blood! You gutted the corpse like a fish! It's going to take forever to clean all the residue from the Evangelion." Misato looked over at Rei, who was picking at the bandages that were wrapped around her chest and back. "Rei, stop messing around with those. Ritsuko will have both our heads if your burns get infected. You know how hard it was for me to get her to let you stay here and relax a little before heading back home?"

Rei dutifully lowered her hand. "I am sure that it was a protracted argument with Dr. Akagi, Captain-"

Misato coughed. "Misato. But I do not see the point in my being here as my injuries do not allow me to fully partake of the benefits of the hot springs, unlike Pilot Soryu's."

Asuka smiled smugly, running a hand over her left shoulder where three white lines began, sympathetic scars that ran down across her back to end above her waist. "That's because mine are sympathetic injuries, while yours were actually caused by the lava heating up your Entry Plug." Despite her smile, her tone wasn't harsh. "You did get off pretty well though, Wondergirl. I mean, your little array thing was right in the middle of the lava flow. Crawling out of the lava had to have sucked, but I have to say that the prototype stood up pretty well."

"I was not asking about the difference between our injuries, Pilot Soryu." Rei commented. "I was asking as to why I need to stay here to 'relax' when I cannot fully partake of the hot springs."

Misato flicked some water at the discontent girl. "Because we needed to have a girls' night. I mean, it's good to hang out without any guys around. This is probably going to be the only time that we'll be able to." She smiled at the girls. "Once we get back to Tokyo-3, you'll be going right back to school."

"What?" Asuka cried indignantly. "What do you mean that we're going right back to school?" She sat upright as she stared in disbelief at her commanding officer.

Misato shrugged. "Your classmates returned from their trip a few days ago."

"Already? Sheesh. Time flies when you're stuck on site being bored out of your skull waiting to attack an unborn abomination."

"That's why we're taking this chance to relax now." Misato slouched down, sitting so that just only her head was above the steaming water before sighing again. "But anyways, Rei, do you know what would have happened if you went back to Tokyo-3?"

Asuka smiled knowingly at the other girl. "I know exactly what would have happened."

Misato spoke before Rei had a chance. "If you're thinking Shinji, you'd be wrong. Rits would have had her in the medical wing under observation."

Rei tilted her head slightly, thinking. She had known that would have been the most likely event, but she had been hoping that Shinji would have visited her at the hospital. Rei was sure once he had heard that she was there that he would have come. It would have proven to be a pleasant experiment, but one of the lessons that she had learned from the Commander was that there was no use in dwelling on the past and what could have been. There was only the present and what one could shape the future into. She wondered what she could shape from her current present, stuck as she was with her commanding officer and irritating teammate.

"-well, that would have sucked, I suppose." Asuka languidly stretched out her arms. "But still, not the end of the world, I suppose. Sempai would have been too busy with her samples to bother you too much." She turned back to Misato, pouting. "So it's right back to the same old routine? Don't you Japanese celebrate Christmas?"

"Not the way that you Europeans do. Besides, that's what that trip was for. The schools will be out for a long weekend at the end of this week, but that's about it." Misato shrugged as she sat up in the water, resettling against the wall. "Oh, that reminds me..." She turned towards Rei, a somewhat apologetic look on her face. "I'm going to have to kick you out of the apartment when we get back."

Rei sat up straight and looked over at Misato, her face expressionless.

"It's not that I dislike having you over, Rei." Misato continued, watching the girl. "But I need my living room back. Shinji's better, and is already back on the active roster. The apartment's just not big enough for you to stay."

Asuka, who was watching the albino girl intently during the news, saw the smallest and briefest flashes of unhappiness pass over her otherwise emotionless face.

_Why does she just calmly except this? I mean, she flips out at me over that nonsense with the techs, and but when Misato tells her that she can't live with the Dummkopf anymore she obeys without protest. Always with the blind obedience to orders. But I know she's not happy about this. _

But while Asuka knew that her teammate was unhappy, she didn't know what exactly to do with the information. For whatever reason, needling the blue haired girl didn't appeal to her. Rei certainly deserved all the verbal barbs that she could send her way, particularly taking into account the laser shenanigans, and the way that her prototype's recorder equipment only managed to get a few minor glimpses of her in all her glory, but Asuka's heart just wasn't in it.

Perhaps it was the pathetic way that the girl looked, sitting there, sporadically kicking her legs in the hot water of the bath, her face blank and emotionless, despite the bizarre storm of emotions that the redhead knew lurked beneath the doll-like exterior. But on the other hand, the German girl reasoned, this certainly wasn't the first time that the girl had looked pathetic. Far from it, in fact.

_I must be getting too old for this shit, _she thought to herself, shifting around in the water, stretching her legs. _It's either that or I'm still running a victory buzz. It must be making me all magnanimous. But what can I do to highlight this? Rei needs someone to help her out, but I've got my hands full with trying to install a backbone into the Dummkopf. I don't have time to teach the Doll how to be a real girl, even if she would listen to me._ A smile suddenly split the redhead's face as the perfect solution hit her, much like how she had hit the Angel earlier on in the day. Climbing up out of the hot springs, she looked at the others.

"Either of you want something else to drink?" Asuka twirled her empty glass. "I need a refill."

"Thanks, but I'm still good!" Misato cheerfully answered, raising her own glass. Rei merely shook her head negatively, causing the redhead to roll her eyes as she left the pool area.

Once in the locker room, she hurriedly dug out her phone and called Hikari. As the phone continued to ring, she began to mutter darkly in irritation, but once the phone clicked over into the other girl's voice mailbox, she sounded cheerful again.

"Hikari, it's Asuka. I need you to do me a favor and go over to Wonder- I mean Rei's apartment and make sure that it's got the basic necessities and stuff. Misato's booting her from the apartment once we get back and I know that she probably doesn't have any food or anything at her place. We'll talk more once we see each other, but I'm going to need your help with her. Oh- don't mention it to the Dummkopf- I'm sure that she'll want to have a teary-eyed goodbye with him. See ya!"

Clicking the phone shut, she buried it back into her clothing, wondering why the pig-tailed brunette hadn't picked up. It wasn't particularly late, so she probably wasn't asleep, and it was a school night, which meant that the ultra-responsible girl wasn't out at the movies or anything. Putting her idle speculation aside, she made her way to the drinks stand and obtained a refill on her drink, and decided to argue with Misato again about why the woman wasn't letting her drink anything other than virgin daiquiris.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kaji paused the security recording and rewound it back to the beginning, watching it again for the fourth time. This particular clip was only one of a few files on the unmarked CD that had shown up in one of his dead drops, but it was a goldmine of information. Strange, confusing information, but at the same time, very, very interesting.

Shinji Ikari, a meek, quiet boy with an exaggerated conflict-avoideant personality, launched himself at a boy several times his size, doing a remarkable amount of damage until his security team managed to separate the pair.

A second video clip was of Shinji attacking his friend, Toji, despite still recovering from injuries sustained in the previous battle.

The third clip was of a crippled boy managing to overpower his security escort and make his way and commander his Evangelion from the cages, where it apparently had been waiting for Asuka.

There was no audio on the video clips, but there were transcriptions of what had been said.

The Section-2 agent who had left the CD for him had written the obvious conclusion in black and white in his short summary, just in case that the spy wasn't able to figure it out for himself.

This meek and unassuming boy, this boy who normally wouldn't say boo to a mouse, under certain circumstances, would flip out in a most astounding manner. The boy had certain triggers to unlock these near-psychotic rages, and the subject of Rei Ayanami, or to be more specific, her well-being, was definitely one of them.

This, while interesting all on it's own, was made even more so when one took into account the way that the blue haired girl seemed to reciprocate where the boy was concerned. Kaji looked over at the kitchen table, where the mark the thrown knife had left could still be seen if one was looking for it. She hardly ever seemed to react to anything else, even more-so than Shinji, but she had definite ideas about what happened to people who would presume to partake of the boy's breakfast. Very violent ideas, well past the point of mere disproportionate retribution and into the realm of insanity.

All of this from an otherwise calm, collected individual who remained unaffected by any other sort of provocation, be it from Asuka's pointed quips to the rigors of battle against the Angels.

An interesting puzzle on the best of days itself, but there was more. He had found nothing new at all about the girl's history. The girl was a ghost. What little there was on her was locked by order of NERV, including things that were of public knowledge for the other Children.

All in all, it was a fascinating puzzle. He couldn't wait to go snoop around her home. There surely had to be something of interest there.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Hikari stood in the open doorway to Rei's apartment, hands on her hips as she glared into the murky gloom of the dilapidated domicile. Toji and Kensuke, lassoed into helping her on this errand, stood with mouths agape as they peered past the irate brunette.

"Do we have the right place?" Hikari asked, not wanting to believe the small metal placard next to the door.

"It's apartment 402..." Kensuke muttered, tapping the number. "Ayanami, R. It's her place, alright."

"This is bullshit!" the girl exclaimed, walking through the door, not bothering to take off her shoes. "This isn't somebody's home, this is a hole you throw someone into and forget about them!" Eying the piles of trash in the kitchen with obvious distaste, she started opening up cabinets, looking through them. What she was looking for, the boys had no clue, but it was apparent that she wasn't finding it. As Kensuke wandered further on into the mostly empty room, Toji ran a finger gingerly across the counter-top, grimacing at the feel of dust and grease.

"No wonder she's all but moved in with the Shin-man. Look at this place- she's got almost nothing at all." Toji ran a hand through his hair as he looked around the small kitchenette. "Does she eat anything but take out? I mean... I know that she was making food at Shinji's place, but-"

"But she doesn't have anything at all here past a frying pan and a kettle." Hikari finished her boyfriend's sentence, still looking around. "I knew that she was... odd," she said, biting her lower lip in both rage and unhappiness, "but... how could she live like this? Why didn't she say anything to anyone? There's not even a lock on the door! Anyone could traipse in here."

Toji frowned, and was about to bring up the minor case of the armed guards downstairs when Kensuke came back over to them.

"Guys, she's got like nothing but school clothes and a dress." He paused, looking at their expressions. "Literally, nothing but a handful of school uniforms and **a** dress. And that Halloween costume of hers, but that doesn't count as real clothes." He looked back into the room. "I think that all she's got is a couple of books, and these glasses."

"Rei doesn't wear glasses." Hikari said, puzzled, reaching for the eyepieces in Kensuke's hands. "Plus, these are broken. And they're men's glasses!"

"Look at the inside of the right arm." The bespectacled boy suggested, shoving his hands into his pockets. "It says G. Ikari."

"Ikari?"

Toji frowned as he mulled it all over. "Gendo Ikari. Shinji's dad. Hey, isn't he supposed to be like her guardian?"

Hikari looked up from the glasses, her eyes narrowing. "Yes, I think I remember that coming up. What do you bet that he doesn't live like this? What is wrong with that man? He dumps his son off on the Captain, and for the girl he actually is the guardian of, he makes her live here?"

"I have heard him called 'The Bastard King' at Misato's parties before." Toji offered helpfully. "And Shinji's always an upset sort of tight-lipped about his dad, too."

"I wonder if the others know about all this?"

Hikari pursed her lips for a moment, then shook her head. "If they did, they'd freak. Shinji would, at least." Sighing, she walked into the middle of the room, each step sending up motes of dust into the air. "Alright, new plan. We're collecting what little she has up and we're taking it to my house."

"Your house?" Toji repeated as he started taking the small number of school uniforms out of the closet.

"My house." The girl confirmed, going to the kitchen to get a trashbag. "Misato might not have room at her apartment, but my house has a spare room. Even if it didn't, I wouldn't let her spend another night here." Opening up the lone chest of drawers, she sighed as she began shoveling undergarments into the bag.

"Is your Dad going to be alright with this? What about your sisters? I mean-"

Hikari spun to glare through watery eyes at the boy. "What do you want me to do? It's not right for someone to live like this! Rei is our friend, Toji!"

"Yeah, but how are we going to explain to her bodyguards that she's moving? I doubt that it's as simple as us picking up her stuff and taking it to your house."

A new look of angry determination settled over Hikari's face. "I'm going to make it that simple."

Kensuke came out of the small bathroom, confusion on his face. "Guys, why does Rei have a NERV nurse's uniform?"

Eins, Zewi, Drei, Vier!

Kozo walked into the tomb-like office to find Gendo standing at the window, staring out over his kingdom, the orange and yellow light of sunset painting a cheerful scene out on the forest and small city that sat nestled within the shelter of the Geo-Front.

"You wanted to see me?"

Gendo shifted his weight from leg to leg, before turning and going to his chair. Only after pulling himself into his usual position, resting his elbows on the desk, hands clasped in front of his face, did he speak.

"The Old Men are changing things. They are sending the Fifth Child to us."

"But it's too early for that! He's not supposed to arrive until after the Twelfth Angel at least!"

"I know. He's also not coming over in any manner of official capacity- Kiel is just lengthening the boy's leash. He also hasn't called to let me know about this, either."

The retired professor frowned. "What are they playing at, then? Are they expecting the boy to act as a spy? How do they expect him to explain his presence away?"

"My source is unsure. Apparently, there have been some... odd reports about the boy amongst the staff of the mansion."

"To be sure, if he is what we suspect." The older man's tone was sour as he mulled the information over. "What is your plan? How are we going to play this?"

"We're stepping up our own timetables. The good Doctor has already scheduled the operation- all we need is for Rei to return from the hotel Major Katsuragi took them too."

"The first promotion, then?"

"Long over-due. Repeated successes against foes such as the Angels? Command of three Strategic level weapons, such as the Evangelions? She will not be a Major for very long."

"So you are advancing all of the projects, then. Risky move. Once you begin with Shinji, you will not be able to hold him in stasis. The status quo will have changed. There will be no going back."

"Until I know for certain what it is they are playing at with this move, I have to assume the worst. I was unable to do anything about the Second Impact, Kozo, but I will be dammed if I can't do anything about the Third. Kiel Lorenz doesn't just make idle moves with his pieces, and that boy is his lynch-pin. His most powerful piece. There is something that he wants Nagisa to accomplish here in Tokyo-3, and whatever it is, it will have to do with Impact. That's all that boy is meant for."

"Gendo..." Kozo paused, thinking for a moment. "Go ahead with the operation, if you must, but hold off on advancing Shinji's timetable. Let's be absolutely sure about this before we sacrifice his innocence."

"The Beast will awaken, Teacher." Gendo warned his old friend. "One way or another, the Beast will wake up, and ascend on the path towards Godhood." He sighed, leaning back into his chair. "But I will hold off on the boy."

"Is there anything else, then? I was reviewing the estimates on repairs for Unit-00."

"Yes, about that... I think that this is a good time to install some of our modifications."

"Which ones did you have in mind?"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

In the endlessly looping train in the perpetual sunset that was home to the souls of the Evangelions, Unit-02 looked up as Unit-00 limped into it's train car.

_**What do you want?**_

Unit-00 sat down next to the red Evangelion, giving off a wounded air. _**Hello to you too. **_

_**I was taking a nap. What do you want?**_

_**Unit-01 isn't letting me in it's train car. I want to talk to it.**_

_**Are you still going on about when it kissed you? Because I think that you dreamed that whole thing up. Even if you didn't, what are you going to talk about? How your pilot is a batshit insane girl? Or how you crawled through a river of lava?**_

_**I didn't dream it up, and it did kiss me. And is it so bad that I want to talk to it about this last mission?**_

The red Evangelion shrugged non-committally. _**I suppose not. But why are you in here, bothering me when you should be bothering Unit-01?**_

The cycloptic Evangelion looked at it's four-eyed sibling as if it was retarded. _**I already said that it wasn't letting me into it's train car. I want you to talk to it. It might remember you from before. It listened to you in the past.**_

_**Look, Miss Ayanami, even if Yui still remembers me, I see no reason to facilitate this burgeoning relationship between a pair of souls currently housed in cybernetic war-machines. Besides,**_ Unit-02 appeared to sniff facetiously, _**the pair of you should feel ashamed of letting the Evangelion's hormones get the better of you.**_

_**Hormones have nothing to do with it! **_Unit-00 protested, it's singular eye flashing. _**Why couldn't it be interested in me for me?**_

_**Do you really expect me to dignify that with an explanatory response?**_

-_**Author's Notes-**_

_Woo! This chapter's been a long time coming. Things these past months have been real hectic at work, and unfortunately August is going to be a loss as well, as far as my writing goes. I'll be onsite at a new location that month and won't have internet access, and will be too busy working to do much writing anyways, but I'm planning on writing little snatches here and there. The next chapter will be up probably mid-September, possibly as early as the end of the first week, depending on how much free time I get in August._

_Pre-reading, as always, was done by that fine chap, Squire of Gothos. Asuka's rant in German was grasicouly provided by Judicar Deimos. Thanks a ton guys!_

_For the rant, here are some translations:_

_With such methods one is only likely to kill himself or endangers the equipment.  
It is hardly believable that such a technical construction is actually considered viable at all.  
Out there is not really a normal laboratory environment [=synonymous with safe testing grounds].  
I mean, how can anyone be so ** [=actually not a literal translation since the content of German cursing is more often associated with fecal terms than sex-related words] retarded? _

_Now, just in case there was any confusion about Asuka's remarks about point attacks, and the heat being all over Rei with the use of the array, what she's getting at is that Ramiel's thermal weapon was focused on one point, whereas being stuck in the array means the heat is being exposed to the entire Evangelion at once. It's as if a person was being hit with a squirt gun versus being thrown into a pool. It was brought up, but I couldn't think of another way to explain it in-story, so here you go._

_To ByLanternLight- o.0 I don't think that you'll be disappointed with the upcoming chapters. Also- stop reading my mind! :)_

_I just want to thank everyone for bearing with me and reading and commenting on my work, and I hope that you all continue to enjoy it!_


	29. Chapter 29

The gray-haired boy stepped off from the plane's staircase onto the tarmac, and breathed in deeply, savoring the smells of the city's airport. The air was heavy with the smell of rubber, exhaust, and jet fuel, but his senses were beyond those of normal men. He could smell the earth beneath the asphalt, the far off sea, the clouds and the sunshine. He could smell a thousand different people, their stink lingering in his nose like a perfume. But he also smelled their souls, each one flickering like a candle, their light pale and wan compared to the star that burned within him. He smiled dreamily, lost in his own world, caught up in the exquisite sensation that was the Lilium.

Kaworu Nagisa had arrived in Japan, but was not yet in Tokyo-3. The Fortress City had no public airport, the only one present belonging, of course, to NERV. As the boy's presence was not official, he was forced to fly using the civilian airliners, but it was of no concern to the young man. He was on his own time now, and he cared nothing for schedules or delays. After all, what was a few hours or even days to a being untouched by time? His smile deepened.

He looked to the south, past the city and hills, out towards Tokyo-3. If he concentrated, he could hear a faint song, a melody of untold beauty, that spoke of many things. Kaworu's smile seemed to stretch from ear to ear now, as he began to walk, ignoring the insects around him.

"I am coming, dearest Shinji." he breathed, almost inaudibly.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Crimson eyes snapped open, staring past an errant lock of azure hair towards the ceiling. While it was still an unfamiliar ceiling, Rei paid it no mind as she sat up in her new bed, mindful of her bandages and still sensitive skin. Blowing the hair away from her eyes with an absent-minded puff of breath, she slid her feet into her slippers, and gingerly wrapped her bathrobe around herself before venturing from her new bedroom to the bathroom that she now shared with the Horaki sisters. As it was still early, even for the pig-tailed brunette, she encountered no one as she traveled down the hallway, scanning the framed pictures that hung on the walls, noting once again the general happiness of the somewhat standard nuclear family.

As she prepared for the day, plodding through her routine on autopilot, her mind ran ahead, working through the puzzle that the photos presented. The four members of the household seemed to exude a sense of belonging, a sense of contentment, and an easy familiarity that was alien to her.

_Not even at Captain Katsuragi's apartment have I ever experienced anything like the bonds that these four share. Not even with the Commander. _Spitting toothpaste out into sink, she frowned slightly as she continued brushing, staring at herself in the mirror as she did so. _Not even with my connection to Unit-00, to my sister, have I felt as connected to another person on such a level. Such are the bonds of family- and in them, the secret to controlling the Evangelions._

She felt a faint stirring in the back of her mind, as Unit-00 threw it's groggy conscious towards her, summoned by the girl's errant thoughts.

_**What do you want? I'm trying to sleep, **_the irate cyborg thought at her, it's tone growing caustic as it continued, **_Sleep and heal up, you psycho. _**

_I want nothing from you, _Rei sent back, pausing in brushing her teeth, seemingly staring vacantly at her reflection, _I was thinking about a boring and uninteresting problem. Nothing that requires your experience or input._

_**A boring and uninteresting problem, that makes you think about me.**_ Unit-00's response was curt and flat, the behemoth clearly not believing it's pilot. **_Well, keep your thoughts to yourself, because of all the things that I want to talk to, you, Sister dearest, your thoughts are most certainly not one of them. And I'm serious about that too- regeneration cycles are a pain, and my skin hasn't completely grown in around the new armor plats, so it itches._**

_I apologized for this already, _the girl retorted, _although there was no need for me to do so, other than to soothe your injured ego. There was nothing anyone could have done about the lava. I too was injured by my chosen course of action. We suffered together._

_**Yes, but you have your little friend to talk to about it all. Unit-01 is-**_

"Rei? Rei, are you alright?" Hikari's worried voice snapped Rei back to the bathroom, her fingers tightening around the handle of the toothbrush as she looked at the other girl.

"I am fine, Hikari." Rei turned back to the sink to finish up, only partially paying attention to the fretting brunette behind her.

"Are you sure? You were just standing there, staring off into space! You scared me, for a second. I thought that the bathroom was empty, you were so quiet."

Dropping her toothbrush into the cup on the shelf next to the sink, Rei turned to leave. "I apologize. It was not my intention to frighten you."

"Is it your bandages? Are they bothering you? You never did say when Dr. Akagi was going to give you a clean bill of health. Oh- hold on a second-" Hikari grabbed a washcloth and rubbed at the corner of Rei's mouth. "You drooled some toothpaste. But how was your appointment yesterday? Did you get any good news?"

Rei blinked, wondering why her classmate was so interested in her physical well-being, and if it was residual concern over her previous living quarters. "The appointment was not about the injuries I sustained in the last battle, it was a routine examination."

"Oh." Hikari paused for a moment, searching for something to say as she plucked the girl's toothbrush out of the cup and rinsed it off, as no more information was forthcoming from the blue haired girl. "Are you looking forwards to tonight then?"

"You are referring, of course, to the Christmas party at Captain Katsuragi's?" Thoughts, plans and possibilities flashed through the girl's head. "Yes. And you?"

Rolling her eyes good naturedly, Hikari grabbed her own toothbrush, motioning to the girl to sit down and stay to chat. "Of course!" she responded cheerfully, talking around the cleaning implement. "You do know that Shinji went on a city wide search for a present for you, right?"

"He has not mentioned anything of the sort in our conversations, no." Rei said, her curiosity piqued. While the matter of the upcoming party had been brought up over the past few days, both at school and at NERV, the boy had given no mention to having looked for a gift for her, nor had he even brought up the social custom of gift giving for discussion. Her cheeks tinged a faint rosy color and her eyes widened as she realized that she hadn't gotten him anything; a gross breach of custom, if she understood things properly. While it was certainly an interesting variable in the experiments with Shinji, she was certain that it could only negatively impact things. Wheels began to turn as she frantically began to plan, acutely aware that she had perhaps ten hours at best to locate a suitable gift. Wrapped up in her thoughts as she was, it took the pig-tailed girl shaking her to snap her back to the present.

"Rei! Are you really okay? Did you hear anything I just said?" Hikari worriedly asked her friend, staring into her unsettling crimson orbs. "Should I call Dr. Akagi, or your-" she trailed off as she saw the normally tranquil eyes flood with worry before shifting back to a strange calm. "Um..."

"I need to go." Rei said as she stood back up from the edge of the tub. "I must secure a gift for Shinji."

Hikari's jaw dropped open, not quite believing what she was hearing. "You what?"

"I neglected to obtain a gift for Shinji. I must correct this oversight."

"But... it's the day of the party!" Hikari protested. "It's Christmas Eve!"

"Yes." Rei bit her lip. "I must hurry."

Einz, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei glared at the crowds, the faint frown marring her otherwise calm features. The source of her displeasure, was not, as Hikari might have thought, from not knowing what to get the boy of her affections, but rather the presence of the large crowds. She felt that with all the extra duties and miscellaneous things that took up her time gave her a perfectly reasonable reason to be out shopping on the day of the expected revelry, but for everyone else for whom this was not their first real Christmas, there was no such excuse. The crowds were simply in her way, and she was late enough as it was.

The Christmas holiday, according to Major Katsuragi, was a day for spending with one's family. There would be no mad party at the apartment building, just a 'small, quiet affair'. Rei had accepted this news as she did most things, but knowing the sizes of the past events hosted by her direct commander, the young girl had serious doubts about the metric used by the woman for measure such things.

While she had planned to arrive late to the Halloween party, it was not her intention to do so today. The experiments that she had planned had nothing to do with gauging peoples reactions to any manner of costume, and anyways, if her research was to be trusted, people got into many interesting activities while following the archaic traditions of the holiday. There were also numerous examples of misunderstandings and opportunities for mischief that could occur, and Rei trusted Shinji's redheaded roommate as about as far as she could throw her. Every moment that Shinji was alone with the girl was intolerable.

Seeing a small gap in the crowds, the lithe girl slipped in, crimson eyes tracking the flow of people as her hand closed in on her quarry. Feeling the box pull free of the display stand, a faint smile of victory appeared on her face.

Einz, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kodama grinned from behind a glass of eggnog at Shinji as kept glancing warily around the him, as if in the expectation that a wild party would appear out of nowhere to ambush him.

She certainly couldn't blame the boy though, as the relatively calm environment was completely at odds with the way his guardian normally celebrated the holidays. If she was him, she'd be waiting for the other shoe to drop as well. Sipping her drink, she glanced at the clock, wondering just when her sister and their new roommate would arrive.

The strange girl had dashed out of the house early that morning, already dressed in the cheerful holiday attire that her sister had most certainly forced her into. Hikari had followed close behind, struggling to keep up with the injured girl, shouting at her that they would meet at Misato's.

It was the first time that Kodama had seen the girl move at a pace that was more than a measured walk. Her fears that an Angel Attack was imminent were allayed somewhat by the fact that Hikari had followed the girl out the door, and then by Nozomi, who apparently had been snooping and overheard the older girl's conversation.

It had taken a few moments for the reason behind all the rush and commotion to sink into her head. Even as she palmed her face, she had to admit that it wasn't anything that couldn't have been expected of the strange new addition to their family.

It wasn't that Rei was forgetful or flighty. Once she had learned something, she could regurgitate the information up on command, as she had proven when Hikari hadn't been satisfied that she had mastered the lessons assigned in class. It was that she was woefully ignorant of the various aspects of living. Whomever had been responsible for raising her had done a horrible job. Very little held the laconic girl's attention or interest, it seemed.

But as she had witnessed this morning, if there was anything that could elicit a response in the young woman, it was the boy that was putting about nervously in the kitchen, checking and rechecking the game hens currently in the oven.

Asuka walked into the kitchen, shooting Shinji a look of exasperated annoyance.

"The stupid birds will be fine, Idiot, unless you keep opening the oven to check on them." she said, pulling the carton of eggnog from the refrigerator and refilling her glass. "You need to calm down and chill out." She shook her head with a snort. "Not that I ever thought that I'd need to say that to **you**."

"I guess... Well..." the boy trailed off as he went back to pacing, seemingly unable to sit down, his rolling gait more pronounced that it normally was. Kodama hadn't seen him this full of energy before, apart from drunken sprees at the past parties.

"Jeez, Shinji!" Asuka said irritably, "Go and pace outside if you can't sit still! You're worse than the twin terrors out there. You're making it all stuffy in here."

The boy silently complied, leaving the girls in the kitchen. Kodama chuckled into her glass as the younger woman frowned.

"What's so funny?" she demanded, tones of outrage just audible in the question.

"You." Kodama said as she took another sip of the rich drink. "What's got you all on edge? Surely an Evangelion pilot can handle babysitting a pair of elementary schoolers without getting snippy with her teammates."

Asuka snorted derisively as she poured the eggnog into her glass and nearly drained it in a single draft. "That big oaf is what's got me irritated." she said, pointing to the boy out on the porch, pacing back and forth. "He's being completely impossible!"

"Well, if you keep poking at him the way you do," Kodama said sagely, "he's going to poke back."

"Good!"

"Good?" Kodama repeated, obviously puzzled. "The way you act towards him, he's liable to try and smack you." She paused for a moment, considering things. "Well, if you were a boy, he might."

"Good." Asuka said, even more firmly than she had before. "And I'd like to see him try it. But it would be an improvement!"

Thoroughly confused now, Kodama pointed to the boy. "I don't know how it's escaped your notice, Asuka, but he's gotten quite a bit bigger than he used to be. I don't know if he's still behind you in those fighting classes they make you three do, but all the training in the world only goes so far against a bigger opponent. You could get hurt."

Asuka shook her head dismissively, sending her mane of hair in all directions. "First off, he's nowhere close to be wanting to take a swing at me," she said, pouring more eggnog into her glass. "But he might just say something back, and that's good! Once that happens, we can really get started!"

Realization began to dawn on the older woman, and she set her glass down on the table, her face serious. "Get started? Asuka, are you talking about what I think you're talking about?"

"Yes, Asuka," Misato's quiet voice chimed in, startling both her ward and her guest, "Are you?" Her arms were crossed in front of her as she leaned up against the door frame, one eyebrow quirked in curiosity.

Raising an eyebrow of her own, Asuka shrugged. ""I'm talking about making the boy grow a spine, and then a pair of balls. Isn't it obvious?" Seeing that no answer was coming from either woman, she raised her hands in disbelief. "Oh, come on! Why do you think that I'm so hard on him? He acts like a scared little girl half the time! He needs to be a warrior both in and out of the Evangelion! We can't work together reliably if he's a completely different person during a battle than during training!"

Misato sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Well, to honest, I thought that you had a crush on him."

"What?" Asuka shrieked, eyes wide.

"Yeah, I thought that was why you and Rei had that little scuffle."

"We had that 'little scuffle' because she's a crazy bitch! Why the hell would you think that I have a crush on that miserable excuse for a boy, especially when Kaji's around? He just can't compare! A girl's got to have some standards, you know."

"Well, he's your age for starters, and he fights Angels..."

Shaking her head, Asuka began counting points off on one hand. "One," she said, holding out a thumb, "He's totally not my type. I'm trying to make him a better pilot, not a better boyfriend! Wondergirl is welcome to him. Two, he's not even good looking! Even the geek is better looking than he is! Three, his only redeeming qualities is that he's killed Angels and that he's not terrible with his cello."

"So you admit that he does have redeeming qualities."

Glowering at the pair of grinning women, Asuka shook her head again and left the kitchen to return to her babysitting duties, muttering darkly under her breath in German.

"All joking aside," Kodama said, serious again, "I don't think what she's doing is very smart. Either he or Rei is going to react badly- and what's this about her and Rei fighting?"

Misato shook her head as she sat down. "They got into it a while ago. I honestly don't think that it was related to this so much as to other issues between them. But she and I are going to have a long talk later about team building, and how being a jerk isn't going to help any. Anyways," she said, her face brightening as she changed the subject, "how are you and Aoba getting along?"

Einz, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kaworu Nagisa smiled, as he almost always did, as he watched the throngs of people obstructing the path of his sister and her friend. His puppets were not obviously getting in their way, but nonetheless they were making it difficult for them to go about their business.

It wasn't pettiness or spite that drove him to act in such a manner towards the irritating girl who would try to usurp Shinji's affections, for the nephillium was beyond the limited scope of human emotion. His was a philosophy far beyond the ken of mortal man, the Lilim born of the red clay of the base earth. Even his sister, tainted with such humanity as she was, could not hope to understand him. But that was the burden of being the _MASTER, _after all. But amongst all the little ones that were, Shinji-kun would come to love him, even if he didn't understand. He had foreseen it, after all.

His smile lessened slightly but did not completely vanish as he ducked behind a column, evading the gaze of the blue haired thief. The upstart girl had no way to know that he was here, but she had been looking around as if she suspected that someone's invisible hand was at work here, a slightly cross look on her face. Still, while it should not be possible for her to detect him, there was no point in taking chances. Drawing his soul back into his mortal body, he released his hold on the crowds of people, and slipped away into the milling mass of humanity. It was not yet time to reveal himself to her. Soon, yes, but not just yet.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Nozomi and Mari looked up from the television when the doorbell rang. Springing up from their spots on the couch to either side of Asuka, they raced each other to be the one to answer the door. Throwing it open, twin faces of excitement fell as the pair saw Rei and Hikari standing there.

"Aww... It's just Rei and Hikari." Nozomi complained, turning back towards the living room.

"What do you mean, 'Just Rei and Hikari?" the brown-haired girl asked indignantly, her hands on her hips, looking cross. "That's incredibly rude!"

"Miss Asuka was telling us about the Krampus!" Mari explained, excitement sparkling in her eyes.

"The what?" Hikari asked, trying the foreign word as she hung up her jacket. "Krampus?"

"The Krampus!" the young girls cried out in unison. Giggling madly, they tore back into the living room, leaving the older girls alone in the hallway.

"Hikari, what is a Krampus?" Rei asked, checking to ensure the wrapping on the small box she carried remained intact. "I have not encountered any reference to this Krampus in my research of the holiday."

Shrugging, Hikari motioned for the girl to lead the way further on into the apartment. "I haven't heard of it before. I guess that we'll have to ask Asuka."

Misato waved at the girls as they entered the living room, her face alight with good cheer and beer. "Oohh, Rei! Is that a present for Shinji?" The older woman grinned. "I heard that you almost didn't have one."

Nodding slightly in agreement, Rei set the small box at the foot of the decorated tree that stood in one corner of the living room. "It was a distinct possibility. I was able to secure an appropriate gift, however."

With a naughty wink at Hikari, Misato nonchalantly shrugged. "Well, I suppose if you hadn't been able to get him something, you could have always just put a bow in your hair and tell him that he should unwrap you."

Hikari's jaw dropped as Rei tilted her head to one side in concentration. "I do not understand," she said, as Asuka hurriedly told the younger girls to put on earmuffs, "Why would he unwrap me? I am not wearing wrapping paper. I was unaware that..." The girl trailed off as understanding hit her. Still kneeling by the tree, she turned to look at her red-faced roommate. "Hikari, do you think that there is time to return the-"

"NO REI." Hikari said forcefully, glaring daggers at the laughing officer, "There is **not** enough time to return the gift."

"In that case, do we have any extra-"

"**No, **Rei," Hikari interrupted the girl a second time, this time while sending the giggling redhead a warning look, "That would be inappropriate." Looking around in vain for another mature adult figure, she noticed the absence of her sister. "Hey, where's Kodama?"

Misato, still chuckling, called back to them as she walked down the hall towards her bedroom to grab her camera. "Kodama took the boys with her to go pick up a few last minute things. They should be back any time now, actually."

As if summoned by Misato's words, the door to the apartment opened, and Toji and Kensuke's voices added themselves to the hubbub. Shooting a final glance at Asuka that silently warned the girl to behave, Hikari went to go meet the others.

Her sister waved in greeting at her as the boys trooped past her towards the kitchen, each carrying a large bag in their hands. "So you two finally made it, then." Kodama ducked her head in close next to her sister's. "What'd she end up getting him?"

Quickly shushing her sister, Hikari peeked suspiciously into the small bag she carried. "Please don't tell me it's alcohol..." She said exasperatedly. "I thought that this was going to be a low-key event?"

Kodama took the bottle of wine out of the bag. "Oh come one, Hikari!" she complained, passing the bottle to her younger sister. "A single bottle of wine isn't going to cause any problems; besides, it's traditional!"

"For some reason, your assurances fail to comfort me." Hikari said dryly. "What all were the boys bringing in, then?"

"Just some snacks and things." Kodama said with a smile. "Nothing to get all worked up over." Suddenly serious, she shook her head. "You really do need to stop and relax, girl. I promise you that nothing bad is going to happen if you loosen up a little."

"Hey Hikari!" Asuka's voice drifted in from the living room. "Come here, I want to show you something!"

Sparing her sister a last glance, the brunette moved back into the living room. Both the younger girls were sandwiching Shinji in between them on the couch, explaining the intricate plot of the Christmas special that was playing on the television. Rei sat on the far end of the couch, Pen-Pen in her lap. Asuka stood in the hallway, hands on her hips, her hair pulled back in a pony tail. Jerking her head back towards her room, she turned and walked down the hallway, leaving her door opened. Hikari slid it shut after she entered, leaning up against the wall, watching her friend start to peel off the red sweater she wore.

"So," Auska's voice came from within the wooly depths of the holiday garment, "how goes things on the Ayanami front? I like her outfit." Asuka shucked off the sweater, and ran a hand over the scars that ran down her front. "Check out my scars!" she said proudly, gesturing with one hand at the three pale lines that ran down her front left. "How'd you manage to get her into it?"

"Wincing at the marks on Asuka's body, Hikari sat down on the girl's bed. "It took some convincing, but I managed to get her to take some of mine and Kodama's old things. Did you know that she barely had any clothes other than her school uniforms?"

"I thought it was like that. She's never really worn anything else." Asuka threw her sweater back on. "Shinji's been impossible to deal with today- I think that he's worried that she won't like whatever it is that he got her." She shook her head with a huff. "Every time he starts to show some improvement, he backslides just as quick! I seriously don't know what his issue is." Walking over to her dresser, she pulled out a small bag from the top drawer and held it up with a grin. "But I do, as always, have a plan. The best thing is that this won't only just be good for Wondergirl and the Idiot, but also for me and Kaji!" Taking the small package from the bag and tucking it into a pocket, she shook her head again, "I suppose that you and Toji might get some holiday nookie out of it as well, but I honestly don't get what you see in him."

Giggling, Hikari blushed as they left Asuka's room. "Well, I guess that you just have to know him right. He's got such a sensitive, romantic side!"

Asuka rolled her eyes. "Sure he does. But anyways, you'll have to distract everyone while I get things set up, alright? Neither of them will be able to weasel their way out of it."

"I don't think that you'll have much of a problem with Rei." Hikari whispered to the other girl as they rejoined the party. "She was all too interested in Misato's suggestion earlier."

Asuka smirked. "You do have a point. He'd probably have a heart attack though, if she went through with it."

Hikari looked around at the group, counting. "Is this all who's coming? Where's Dr. Akagi? What about the bridge workers?"

"Well, Kaji said that he'd try to make it, but that he had some things to take care of. The bridge bunnies are going bar hopping, I heard. I don't know what Sempai's doing, but she said that she was busy with something at NERV."

Einz, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Ritsuko looked at the scene before her with a bemused expression on her face. The cavernous office was lit with candelabras, their light filling the room with a warmth that it normally lacked. Green and red bunting lined the walls, and in one corner sat a small tree, moderately decorated, its lights twinkling away with holiday cheer. The windows were set to a dim transparency, letting them see out over the forest and lake, the overhead lights set to replicate the moonlight up above.

Gendo had also gotten another small table from somewhere, and on it sat a small dinner for two, with a small box, expertly wrapped, sitting just before her place. Music played softly in the background, and her cat lay lounging on the couch that sat facing the tree.

"You know," she said conversationally, "I don't remember any of this being here a few hours ago when I gave that report."

"That's because none of this was here a few hours ago." Gendo remarked, pulling her chair out for her. "I don't decorate my office for just anyone, you know."

"Gendo Ikari doesn't celebrate Christmas." Ritsuko said with a grin. "He called the ghostbusters when the ghost of Christmas Past showed up."

"I haven't seen that one yet. Where's that one posted?"

"Nowhere, yet."

"We might have to go change that, won't we?"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Dinner had gone off without a hitch, the home cooked meal having been demolished by all present. Kaji, who had shown up just after they had finished, was munching off a plate of the very remnants of the food, sitting on the couch in between Asuka and Misato, one who kept trying to feed him, and one who kept shooting him dark looks.

"So," Misato said with a grin on her face, "what shall we do next? Watch a movie, or open presents?"

"Open presents! Open presents!" cried both Nozomi and Mari, who began to jump up and down excitedly.

"You realize that all your presents are back home, right Nozomi?" Hikari asked, an amused look on her face. "What are you going to open?"

Both girl's faces fell in unison as they belatedly remembered that all of their presents were indeed back at home.

"Well, why'd you even say something about it then?" Mari asked, a little put out with their exuberant hostess.

Misato winked at the girl and pointed at the tree. "Why don't you two go take a look at the tree? Maybe there's something there for you."

The girls spun around and dashed for the tree, skidding to a halt to inspect the various packages that sat beneath it. Sure enough, each soon found a box that had their name on it. Not wasting a single moment, they tore into the packaging, sending scraps of wrapping paper in all directions to reveal a stack of books. Some were coloring books, and others were storybooks, and there was a diary apiece.

"Books, Misato?" Kaji asked, a bemused expression on his face. "A very... responsible gift."

Snorting, but otherwise ignoring the man's comments, Misato smiled at the girls. "Can you find out if there's anything down there for Asuka, Shinji and Rei? From me, I mean."

Nozomi dutifully turned from flipping through her stack to take another look through the presents, and sure enough when she sat up again, she held three envelopes in her fist. "I found them!" she announced proudly, standing up to deliver them to the pilots.

Both Asuka and Shinji began to laugh as they opened the envelopes, and even Rei managed a look of amusement at their gifts- coupons good for a favor from the woman and from Ritsuko to be provided in the future, to not include getting out of previously scheduled tests or training.

There were still a few things under the tree, and Mari began looking at the labels. She cried out in her sing song voice when she found one for Hikari from her brother, prompting Toji to snatch it away from her, his face burning red as the rest of the group laughed.

Still red faced, Toji held the small box out to Hikari, trying to ignore the fact that Kensuke was busy photographing everything. "Here, Hikari- Merry Christmas."

Red-faced herself, the brunette carefully opened the wrapping paper and the box, revealing the small necklace within. It wasn't anything spectacular, being a modest affair of silver and a red stone cut into the shape of a heart. It was, however, something that she had seen while the class had been on vacation and gushed over, but hadn't bought, deciding on spending her money on more practical things. She shot a glance at her friend that said 'I told you so' as she put it on and then wrapped her boyfriend in a hug, kissing him on the cheek.

"I thought we were going exchange gifts tomorrow at my house," she said, gently poking him in the ribs. "What happened to that?"

"Gotta keep you on your toes." he replied, grinning at her.

Narrowing her eyes in steely resolution, she went in for a full on kiss on the lips- just to keep him on his toes, of course.

Opting to give the pair of lovebirds a modicum of privacy, Misato looked back at the tree, and frowned as she counted the presents that still lay beneath the tree. Pointing at the small stack of presents off to one side, she looked around with narrowed eyes at the others.

"Where did those come from?" she asked. "I don't remember seeing those there before."

"A mystery!" Kaji exclaimed, his voice full of surprise. "Quickly, girls- who are they from?"

Giggling, Mari and Nozomi grabbed at the boxes, searching for the tags.

"They're from you!" Mari exclaimed, her voice just as full as surprise as Kaji's had been.

"Mystery solved!" Nozomi added, handing the small box she had been holding off to Asuka. "This one's for you!"

Mari handed a similar box to Misato, and the third one to Rei. "These are yours!"

All three women exchanged looks, and then stared at the spy, who shrugged nonchalantly.

Nozomi then handed the fourth, and largest, box to Shinji. "This one's yours!" she cheerfully commented.

The three ladies' presents were all similar, being a trio of silver necklaces with a trio of rectangular stones set into them. Asuka's were red garnets, Rei's were of blue, and Misato's jet black. Asuka gushed exuberantly about the gift as she instructed the man to put hers on around her neck, while Misato snorted good naturedly as she put hers on. Rei merely looked over at Shinji, who was staring a bit wide eyed at his gift, which was vastly different from the ones that the man had given to the others.

It was a Sig Saur P220R Compact, a small pistol, designed for concealed carry. Both Toji and Kensuke's jaws dropped as Shinji pulled the box free of the paper.

"It's a dependable piece, Shinji." Kaji said conversationally, ignoring the stares of shock and disbelief from the others. "I carried that for a few years, and it's never let me down. It's a .45, so it'll have more of a kick than your 9mm, but I know that you've shot .45s before, and I think you can handle it."

"Th-thanks..." Shinji breathed out, opening the box to take out the small manual, paging through it.

"You can keep the lock that's on it too-" Kaji continued, fishing the keys for the lock out of his pocket and tossing them to the boy, who caught them one-handed as he looked up, "but you'll have to get yourself a storage box for it. All I had on hand was that shoebox."

"Heheh.. thanks, Kaji!" Shinji said again, this time with more conviction.

Misato, deciding to keep the evening's festivities rolling right along, shook her head. "Alright then, I still see some presents underneath-"

"There's three more for you, Misato!" Mari cut the woman off mid-sentence, hauling one of another trio of identical packages over to where she sat.

Checking the tag, Misato shot a glance over to Shinji, who had suddenly turned red. "From Shinji!" she beamed at the boy. "Let's see what you got me-" she said, unwrapping the package, which caused everyone to erupt into gales of laughter, as it was a six-pack of the Yebisu beer the woman constantly drank. "I'm not going to ask how you got this," she said with another look at the boy, "but thanks!"

Nozomi handed the second one to her, grinning. "This one's from Asuka!"

"Turning to the redhead as she unwrapped the package, "Thank you, Asuka! What..." She trailed off as another six-pack of beer was revealed.

"You're welcome!" Asuka said sweetly, without any hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Mari brought over the last present. "This is from Rei!" she announced.

"Thank you, Rei." Misato said, looking at the girl who sat next to Shinji, now no longer the same height but several inches shorter than the tall boy. "I'm sure that this will be..."

Whatever the raven-haired woman thought that the girl's gift was going to be would remain a mystery as she trailed off again as a third six-pack was unwrapped, to a new bought of laughter.

"Really, you three? Really?"

"We asked Dr. Akagi what she thought would be an appropriate gift for you." Rei explained. "She also procured them for us after we pooled some money."

Asuka sighed as she palmed her face. "You're not supposed to explain it, Wondergirl! Sheesh..."

Setting the beer aside, Misato shook her head. "Well, now that that's been taken care of, I see that there are two presents left!" A crafty grin crossed her face as she eyed the two pilots sitting on the smaller couch. "I wonder who those belong too?" Her grin grew wider as Shinji squirmed under her glance, but Rei remained as stoic as ever.

Grinning their own impish grins, Mari and Nozomi grabbed at the last presents, and dutifully brought them over to the pair. There was a large box for Rei, and a much smaller one for Shinji. Both stared in silence at the gift that sat in their lap.

"Ladies first!" Misato said after a few moments of a complete lack of movement from them, prompting Rei to look up at her before moving to open her present.

As the others waited with baited breath to see what manner of romantic gift Shinji had gotten her, she slowly and precisely removed the wrapping paper and ribbon. Soon enough, however, the box sat unadorned in her hands.

"What." Asuka stared at the box, not wanting to believe that it was what Shinji had gotten his pseudo-girlfriend.

"Is that..."

"Really?"

No one saw Kaji's face turn several shades paler for a few moments before returning to normal.

"It's a good, practical gift!" Shinji protested, clearly worried about how Rei might take the gift if the others weren't impressed. "She can use them every day, and-"

"They are perfect." Rei said quietly, opening the box to inspect it's contents. Carefully setting the top aside, she lifted a filleting knife from the set of chef's knifes to inspect it.

"Good knives are an essential for any chef." Shinji said, wanting to be sure that Rei was really happy with her present. "It's all about using the right tool for the job."

Carefully setting the knife back into place in the felt lined box, Rei turned to look at him, smiling. "They are beautiful knifes, Shinji. Thank you."

Blinking rapidly as his face burned red, Shinji managed to sputter out a few incoherent syllables before Toji, taking pity on his friend, bailed him out by throwing a wad of crumpled up wrapping paper at his face. "So, are you going to open your gift, or what?"

Jerked back to the real world, Shinji jerked in his seat, turning a deeper shade of red, which was an impressive feat. Working almost as carefully as Rei had, he set about opening the small gift. As he held up the now unadorned box, the others murmured in both admiration and slight envy, for while most of them knew little about high quality cutlery, a passing familiarity with high level electronics was much more accessible. The SDAT player was a high end model, capable of holding more music than the boy probably even had. Perhaps in recognition of this, taped to the backside of the box was a number of gift cards to a variety of online music stores. Shinji shifted to turn to look at Rei, who, at the time of actually getting the small MP3 player had been entirely certain that this was the best gift available to give to him, had been feeling stirrings of trepidation over whether or not Shinji was going to like his gift. Their faces, mere inches away from each other, filled their eyes, and the only sounds they could hear was the thunderous rush of blood in their heads as their hearts pounded away like the Spanish Gypsies in the Anvil Chorus, which was softly playing in the background on Misato's stereo system.

"Oh man! You scored big time with that!" Kensuke commented, completely ruining the moment and drawing dark looks from Hikari, Toji and Asuka, all of which he ignored or flat out didn't notice, caught up as he was with Rei's aptitude for purchasing high-end consumer electronics. "That's the latest model- and the largest version too! Good eye, Rei!"

As the rest of the room broke out into different conversations, some on just where the spy had gotten three similar but clearly expensive necklaces, and others focusing on the relative densities of depleted uranium and Kensuke's head, Shinji whispered a heartfelt thanks that only Rei heard.

Asuka, deciding that now was the best time to strike, stood up and left the room, walking towards the kitchen. Unnoticed by all, she deftly placed the sprig of mistletoe into the frame of the doorway as she passed. Grabbing a plate of cookies, she moved back into the living room, catching Hikari's eye as she put the plate down on the small coffee table, and slightly nodding towards the strategically emplaced decoration. Hikari nodded her understanding.

Disengaging herself from Toji's arms, she stood up, gathering up some of the discarded wrapping papers. After moving to the kitchen to throw them away as Asuka got the movie started to occupy everyone else's attentions, she managed to non-verbally communicate to Toji that he should help her tidy up with a finger jab to the ribs.

After another trip to collect up trash and throw it away, Hikari felt confidant that the movie had everyone's attention and that the lights were dimmed enough to risk it. Stopping her boyfriend underneath the red and green plant, she silently pointed up. Confused, he looked up at the plant for a moment before understanding dawned on his face.

With a smile that matched hers, they kissed in the doorway for a few moments, before moving back to take their seats. Their absence and activity did not go noticed however, but it was sly grins from both her friend and her older sister that welcomed Hikari back to the living room. Rei, sitting with her back to the kitchen as she was, had not witnessed the carrying out of the tradition that she had read about. She knew that something had occurred but was at a loss to determine just what had transpired.

It was about halfway through the movie that Asuka got up to use the bathroom and refill her drink. As she passed behind her teammates, who had been just sitting there watching the movie, hands in their laps, causing the redhead almost as much aggravation as Kaji's low level flirting with Misato, she 'accidentally' bumped into the loveseat, causing the blue haired girl to fall against the boy. Feeling the girl's eye's on her, she nonchalantly stretched as she passed into the kitchen, hoping that the girl would see the plant.

Asuka's theatrics were not wasted in the slightest, and Rei's eyes widened as she spied the plant hanging invitingly above the doorway, and as she settled back, leaning up against Shinji, the wheels in her head started to turn.

The turning of the gears that composed her mind ground to a screeching halt shortly after the movie ended as Kaji looped and arm around Misato's waist as they walked into the kitchen and brought her in for a kiss underneath the plant. After pushing herself out of the sudden embrace, she looked irately at the plant.

"I can't believe you!" she grumbled, reaching up and pulling the plant down, swatting at the grinning man. "Is there no depth to which you'll stoop?" Still grumbling, she strode angrily into the kitchen, tossing the plant into the trash, still muttering under her breath as Kaji followed close behind, protesting her harsh treatment of him and proclaiming his innocence.

Kodama smiled as she shook her head, standing up. "Alrighty, it looks like it's time for us to head on home." She winked at the young girls as they sleepily started to argue and plead to remain at the house. "If you don't get home and into bed, you won't be able to open any presents!"

After sneaking a last hug and kiss from Hikari, Toji shouldered his younger sister, leaving with Kensuke for their homes. As the Horaki sisters gathered up the last of their things, Shinji and Rei hugged each other good-bye with whispered thanks.

It would be a while before he managed to fall asleep, plagued by vague notions that he had missed some sort of opportunity, but he couldn't figure out what it was. He was certain, however, that this party had been much more enjoyable than the previous ones, even if the lack of rambunctious drunken shenanigans would keep him from waking up in the same bed as Rei. As he closed his eyes for the last time before falling asleep, he wondered if this constituted a third date.

When Asuka finally went to bed, calling it quits long after Shinji had made his sleepy exit from the small after party, it didn't escape her notice that both Misato and Kaji's conversation was nothing but poorly veiled innuendo at each other, and that both seemed to expect her to go bed soon.

It was with a foul taste in her mouth and bitter tears on her pillow that she drifted off into sleep, mutely cursing them and the others.

Floating outside the fifth floor apartment, a gray haired boy, invisible to all who might be watching, including old men on missions of merry-making and toy delivery, narrowed his crimson eyes in fury.

He no longer cared about waiting for the right time. He was certain that he could fix things if they broke. He was an Angel, after all. He would make the darling boy's acquaintance, install himself into his life.

His face twisted from the horrific grimace, the too large mouth going from it'd frown back into a smile, but not his usual easy and care-free smile. This was a sharp and tight one, one that did nothing to quell the raging inferno that still burned in his eyes.

He would make her pay.

Einz, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka glared at the sleeping boy, before shutting her eyes and massaging her temples with one hand. His sheets were twisted up around his waist, showing off his bare chest, which she had to admit wasn't entirely not worth looking at. But that wasn't the issue at hand- she had no idea if he was wearing anything underneath the covers, and she had no desire to find out what he looked like au natural. But it wasn't as if she could really back down now- even if she was the only one who knew about it, she would know that she, the Great Asuka Langley Soryu, Evangelion Pilot and Warrior Extraordinaire, had turned tail and fled from a mission.

That was something that she could not bear. That was something that could not come to pass, for there was nothing that she could not overcome, no puzzle that she could not solve, and no enemy that she could not defeat. Was she not the Dragon-Slayer? Did she not have amongst her weapons the sword Gram, Dragonsbane? Was she not the captain of the elite Evangelion Corps?

She was. She was, and so she could not back down from this measly test, just as she would never willingly yield ground or give way. There could be no surrender, no failure.

Shinji woke up with a start as Asuka clamped one hand over his mouth and used the other to hold his nose. He surprised the both of them as he threw her off, but the intended effect was achieved- he remained quiet as he propped himself up on his elbows to look at her.

Scrambling back to her feet from the heap that the big oaf had sent her tumbling down into, he put a finger to her lips as she hissed at him.

"Hurry up and get dressed, Third! Wear dark clothing and don't make any noise."

Not waiting for a response from the boy, she spun on her heel and left the room, sliding the door shut as silently has she had opened it. A moment later she heard the soft sounds of the boy moving about in his room, and she nodded to herself in satisfaction. A few more moments later, the door slid open from the inside, the boy moving out into the hall, dressed in a dark gray sweater and one of his numerous pairs of black slacks, prompting the girl to shake her head in irritation. Whatever else the boy might be, he was no ninja. Silently, she motioned at him to follow her down the hall to the entryway. After slipping into their shoes, they left the apartment with their commanding officer none the wiser. Shinji impressed her by managing to contain his curiosity until after the elevator door slid shut.

"Asuka, what's happening? Where are we going?"

"Stop." She held a hand up to forestall any more questions. "I'm not going to explain anything more than I have to, so you'll just have to wait until after we pick up Wondergirl. I'm sure that I'm going to have to explain it at least twice to you dolts anyways." Crossing her arms, she leaned up against a wall, glaring up at the boy, daring him to argue with her.

Shinji wisely decided not to risk pointing out that no matter how clandestine their exit from the apartment had been, they were surely still under observation. Opting to wait until the fiery tempered pilot decided to explain whatever it was that she had in mind, he remained silent for the rest of the trip, walking beside her, trying to keep pace with her but failing, as his rolling, long legged gait constantly shifted him ahead several steps, much to his companion's ever increasing ire.

Asuka threw her hands up in disgust at finding the gate to the Horaki household locked. Grumbling under her breath, she waved Shinji over to the high wall that divided their yard from the sidewalk.

"Alright, Third. Give me a boost over the wall," she paused, poking him in the chest, "but don't get all excited and try to cop a feel."

Shinji's face screwed up in uncertainty. "Asuka, really, what are we doing? I don't think sneaking into their home is-"

Asuka slapped him sudden;y, shocking him into silence.

"Now listen here, Third. We're on a mission, a holy quest, and we are not going to be stopped by a measly wall or any silly girlish thoughts you might have about what you think or don't think. Got it?"

Shinji nodded silently, cupping his hands to provide her with a foot hold. Working together, she effortlessly cleared the wall. Sitting on the thin ledge, she looked down at him, jerking her head in the direction of the house.

"Hurry up and climb over. I doubt that she'll listen to just me." With that, she slipped over into the yard.

Staring at the wall, he sighed to himself, prompting a hissed warning from the other side to hurry up and to stop dawdling. Taking a few steps back, he ran towards the wall, and jumped up, grabbing onto the top and with much kicking and flailing of his legs, managed to heave himself over.

Satisfied, Asuka picked up a pebble and tossed it at the window of guest room where she was sure that Rei had been installed. Frowning at the lack of response, she picked up a few more pebbles and threw them, a ringing staccato sounding out into the night air. Still, there was no response. Growling, Asuka picked up a rock. Tossing it up in the air experimentally, she grinned, and ignoring the worried look from the boy, she flung it at just under the window, eliciting a dull thunk as it impacted against the siding. A moment later, the window opened, a head of tousled blue hair appearing, sleepy red eyes peering out into the dark.

"Rei! Get dressed in dark clothes, and get your ass down here! No time for questions, we're on a mission, and we're burning darkness!" Asuka hissed up at the girl, who looked from her to the boy, who shrugged, trying to communicate just how lost he was with the whole thing. Rei disappeared, but didn't close the window. Asuka began to pace back in forth, muttering to herself in German. Hearing Shinji gasp, she spun around in time to see Rei's lithe form drop down from the window, the girl rolling back up to her feet.

As ninja-like the girl's reflexes seemed to be, her choice of clothes was just as abysmal as the boy's, as she was wearing a pair of slacks that looked suspiciously like Shinji's, and faded black sweatshirt that had to be one of Hikari or Kodama's old things. Shaking her head, Asuka turned with a sigh, waving at the two to follow her. As they started down the street, she cleared her throat.

"Alright, you two, listen up. We're on a timeline, and the way before us will not be easy. Here's what we're going to do..."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"I don't really see the need for all this sneaking around." Shinji said with a sigh as the trio crawled through the air ducts. "I mean, we do have passes, and it's not like Section-2 doesn't know where we are. We could just walk there."

"Fuck Section-2 and what they know." Asuka said sharply. "We're on a covert mission. Plus, this is a teamwork exercise. You two have gotten to an acceptable level of skill in the Evangelions, so now we can focus on working as a unit."

"Don't we work as a team during-"

"We are working as a team towards a goal of our own choosing than a scripted task assigned for us to accomplish." Rei said, interrupting the boy to both her teammate's surprise. Pausing for a moment to calculate their location, she continued. "We are doing this of our own volition, and we are forced to evaluate each other's skills and shortcomings if we are to succeed."

Rei's own interest and mild enthusiasm for the mission had startled Asuka, who had expected the girl to be the biggest obstacle in actually getting anything done. Instead, it was Shinji who was being the pain, actually arguing and complaining about things as opposed to simply doing what he was told to do. It wasn't that he was completely against the idea, but he didn't feel like crawling through the ventilation ductwork.

The plan, as had been explained so far, was for the three to sneak into NERV Headquarters and gain access to the Evangelion Cages without being caught or noticed. Once there, Asuka would explain their follow-on mission, citing operational security as the reason why she was withholding information. If they got caught, she didn't want what she had planned to be leaked to the enemy. Shinji had surprised her by asking what they were supposed to do if she got caught but they made it to the cages, but while she commended his dedication to the mission, she explained that what was planned would not work without all three of them.

There was no room for failure. Either they would win, and be remembered forever in glorious victory, or they would fail, and be thrown onto the waste-heap of history.

Asuka had effortlessly imposed herself as the leader of the team, with no arguments from Rei or Shinji. Rei's place as their navigator for the mission had been secured when she suggested the use of the ventilation system in order to gain access to the cages. The girl did not mention just how it was that she was familiar enough with the system's layout to guide them, but she had not led them astray yet, leading the trio through the tight and cramped maze.

Shinji followed behind Rei in the middle of the group, in order to serve as the group's muscle, putting his larger frame and increased strength to work by opening the manual access doors and gates. While Asuka disliked taking up the rear of their formation, she disliked the notion of having the boy crawl over her to clear some obstruction in their path even more.

So far everything had been going smoothly, but the redhead wished that Shinji would hurry up and get on-board with the whole clandestine nature of their mission. Why couldn't he get into the spirit of things?

Asuka's internal thoughts vanished as Rei spoke up from the front.

"We are at the male pilot's locker-room," she announced, lying down as flat as she could in the narrow space. "You will need to remove the grate."

As Shinji climbed over Rei's prone form to get to the last thing standing in between them and the ability to stand up properly, it didn't escape Asuka's notice the way that the albino girl's hand seemingly slipped up to trace down the boy's leg.

Rolling her eyes at the amateur display as she shook her head and sighed. But as amateur as the girl might be, it didn't matter because the boy was oblivious to the touch, focused entirely on removing the grate.

Shinji exited the vent first, hitting the floor with a decidedly awkward thump. But he was no worse for wear, turning around to help them down out of the narrow opening, and after her own exit, she had to admit that the whole thing wasn't exactly set up to be an easy egress point.

As they stretched out the kinks their travels had put into their bodies, Asuka looked around the room, mildly disappointed that it looked pretty much the same as the girl's locker-room. She had seen the insides of more than a few locker-rooms on a smattering of military bases throughout Germany, and the men who used them had definitely left a mark on them. Pushing the matter from her mind, she got back on track, all to aware that they didn't have much time left. Clearing her throat, she clasped her hands behind her back, a satisfied smile on her face.

"Now that we have successfully infiltrated the NERV, it's time that I explained the second part of our mission. We will secure paint from the supply closet down the hall, and then-"

"Put up graffiti?" Shinji asked, thoroughly confused, and earning himself a punch in the arm from the irate leader.

"No, Idiot!" Asuka snapped, "We will customize the paint jobs of our Evangelions! We will mark them so that there will be no doubt as to who we are, that we were here, and that no one can stop us!"

"You wish us to inscribe insignia on the Evangelions?"

"Exactly, Rei! Yes! Our own personal heraldry, our marks, symbols, like those of military units and warriors of old, to let the enemy know just who it was that they were trifling with! And like the Jolly Roger of the pirates of old, our symbols will leave them quivering in fear at our might, at our terrible reputations! They will endure for all time, carried on the wings of our legends!"

Both Shinji and Rei nodded once she was done, but they weren't entirely certain if the girl had expected them to burst into cheers and applause. It was a little odd, but they could see the reason now for all the sneaking around. Also, the more that they mulled it over, the more that they liked it, even if it still seemed a little silly.

"So..." Shinji began as they started throwing cans of spray paint into a couple of trash-bags, "what are you putting on Unit-02, Asuka?"

"You really have to ask?." Her response was immediate, and her tone suggested that it really should have been obvious to the boy. "If you can't figure it out, you'll just have to wait and see for yourself."

"I have no idea what to put on Unit-01." he confessed, throwing a bag over his shoulder and heading for the door. "What about you, Rei?"

She didn't immediately answer, instead walking in silence with her own bag as the trio made their way into the Cages.

"I am also unsure," she said as she began to move up the catwalk that led to Unit-00, "but I believe that I have an idea."

As she neared the cyclopean giant, she felt the faint tugging at her mind as the cyborg focused on her.

_**So what mark do you have in mind sister? How will you signify yourself, how exactly do you plan on distinguishing yourself from the thousands of clones? Roman Numerals come to mind, for a bit of exoticism and western classicism. **_

_You are missing the point. I know who I am, but others do not. I am separate from them, distinct and individual. I am myself, and no-one else. I have no need to enumerate myself anymore. Besides, I have something else in mind._

_**The Seven Eyed Mask? Perhaps the Lance? If you are looking to install fear into the enemy, I doubt little else will work on the Angels. Of course, that's if they are even capable of feeling fear.**_

_My enemies are not just the Angels. Human agents seek to work against the will of the Commander. I must strike fear into them as well._

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Ritsuko yawned as she exited the elevator and walked into the cages, mentally running through all the tests and checks that she had to take care of before she got into her own research projects. Once she was done with the Evangelions, she would have to check on the spare clones, but once she had handled those things, the day was completely free, which was a bit of a rarity these days. Lost in her thoughts, she weaved her way through the unusually crowded platforms and walkways, ignoring the mass of people and the dull roar of dozens of hushed conversations. Walking into another elevator, she took the lift up to the control room that overlooked the cages, humming a Christmas carol to herself, her mind now wandering back a few days to Christmas Eve. Grinning, she topped off her coffee mug and moved over to the main control bank, surveying the myriad readings with an expert eye. Nodding in approval at the systems, she moved to the secondary bank, which was tracking the muscle growth on Unit-02's lower torso.

Hearing the elevator's doors open again, she turned and nodded to Gendo as he strode into the room, alone for once, the Sub-Commander not shadowing him as he usually did. He walked over to the main window in silence, staring out at the sleeping war machines. She turned back to check on the monitors, and they remained in an easy silence for a few minutes.

"I think, Dr. Akagi," he said in his dry, uninterested tone, "that the Pilots are getting restless. You want to consider coming up with some more engaging simulations for them to run through."

Frowning, but not looking over at the man, she made a few notations on her tablet computer, copying down some of the readings and tagging them for her to follow up on later. "What makes you say that?"

"Just a feeling. Intuition, even, perhaps," the bearded man said allowing the faintest undertone of amusement to enter his voice, "but I think the evidence speaks for itself, don't you?"

Tucking the tablet into the pocket of her labcoat, she walked over to join him by the main window.

"What are you going on about-" she trailed off into an inarticulate shriek of rage, dropping her coffee mug as she stared at the shoulder fins of the three Evangelions.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

The three pilots trooped out of the briefing room, their heads held high and not looking as if they had received a severe dressing down from three of the four highest ranked people in NERV. Despite the harshness and length of the lecture, they were unbowed, unmoved and unfazed- a fact that had not gone unnoticed by their superiors. Ritsuko scowled as Misato pointed it out with a chuckle.

"It's not funny, Misato!" the doctor snapped at her friend. "They could have gotten contaminants into the regenerating flesh! That alone-"

"They know better than that," the operations commander said, waving off Ritsuko's complaints. "Asuka wouldn't do anything that would compromise the operational abilities of Unit-02, and Unit-00 is sealed up tight as a drum. All the replacement armor is installed, and all that's left is for the bonding to take place. Besides, it's actually a pretty neat idea, don't you think?"

"No." Ritsuko replied, shooting her friend a flat stare, clearly not impressed with the idea or the pilot's artistic abilities. "I'm going to make them clean it off with tooth brushes."

Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, who had been watching the back and forth banter with a smile, coughed into a fist. "That won't be necessary, Doctor. Commander Ikari is going to have the shoulder fins repainted, with the, ah, embellishments included."

"He what." Ritsuko said, not as a question, but a statement, as she stared incredulously at the man who had even more doctorates than herself, not wanting to believe what he had just said. Misato, wasn't even able to make a verbal statement, unable to keep her jaw from dropping.

"He just doesn't want their insignia to be so messily done." Kozo elaborated, his face completely straight, showing no sign at all of what he thought of the matter. "We are a professional organization, after all." He made a show of looking at his watch before pushing back from the table. "Well, I have to go meet with the Tokyo-3 City Council again." He nodded goodbye to the still shocked women. "Ladies."

As the door slid shut behind him, Ritsuko buried her head in her arms on the table, trying to find some spot of stability in a world gone mad. Misato picked up the pictures of the children's paint jobs, leafing through them to take another look at the Evangelions' shoulder fins.

"It is kind of like bomber nose art, I suppose." she mused. "Plus, it's not like they put anything obscene on them, so no one can complain about that, even if they might be a little... undiplomatic, I guess? I mean, Shinji could have done a pin up piece of Rei."

Ritsuko groaned from underneath her arms. Tossing the photos back onto the table, her friend leaned back in her chair, staring at the ceiling.

"Or, you know," she continued, a wicked grin playing across her face, "Rei could have done a pin up piece of Shinji."

"Misato."

"Yes, Rits?"

"Stop. Talking."

Eins, Zwei, Drei ,Vier!

Hikari looked at her friends in horror. "You did what?"

Asuka shrugged, flipping her long mane of hair back over her shoulder. "We snuck into NERV headquarters, stole some paint, and decorated the shoulder fins of our Evangelions."

"We then returned to our homes, and then got called in shortly before school began and were verbally reprimanded." Rei added, taking a small bite from the boxed lunch she was sharing with Shinji. "That was why I was unable to prepare myself a meal." She paused for a moment, before nodding at her friend. "Thank you for bringing this."

Kensuke interrupted Hikari's assurances that Rei's thanks were unnecessary, prompting a look from her that he ignored. "What did you guys paint on the Evangelions? You know that I'm going to have to repaint my models, right?"

"A fierce rampart dragon stands on my Unit-02 now," Asuka said proudly. "Everyone will know that not even dragons can stop me! I have bathed in the blood of the wyrm, and I fear nothing!"

"I suppose that makes sense." the boy said uncertainly, before looking at the other pilots. "What about you guys?"

"I inscribed a mushroom cloud upon Unit-00," Rei stated calmly in between bites of rice, causing looks of horror to dawn on the faces of the three non-pilots, and uneasy grins on Asuka and Shinji's. "Apart from the Evangelions, the mushroom cloud is the most evocative symbol of war that mankind knows. While there are more destructive weapons at our disposal, none are as immediately recognizable or as terrifying, as you have just demonstrated." She popped a piece of fish into her mouth.

Shinji chuckled nervously as the table's focus shifted to him. "Ah, well... Mine isn't as impressive as theirs,"he said, rubbing the back of his head.

Asuka snorted. "It's actually not half bad looking." she said as Rei nodded in agreement.

"It is... striking," the blue haired girl commented before consuming another sliver of fish. "Subtle and appropriate."

"Well, what is it?" Toji asked, "Don't keep us in suspense, man!"

"Well, the faces of most of the Angels are these weird things that look like bird skulls, right? So, I put one of those over top a pair of crossed bones, like on a pirate's flag."

Kensuke began to laugh. "You put a Jolly Roger on your Evangelion?"

"Dude, that's awesome!" Toji exclaimed. "Whose idea was to do all this, anyway?" he asked, looking around the table as he took another mouthful his food.

"Mine, of course." Asuka said, digging into her bag for her phone. "I took pictures, because you know that they're going to paint over them later, if they haven't done it already." She saw the look that the other pilots shared, before they stared at her in upset shock. "What, you think that they are just going to ignore the fact that we tagged a trio of multi-billion dollar weapons, and just let us keep them like that?"

"I suppose not.." Shinji said, his brow furrowed. "But I'm going to sneak back in and repaint it again!" he exclaimed forcefully, to the surprise of the others.

"I will repaint Unit-00 as well." Rei put in. "No matter how many times I have to do so."

"That's the spirit!" Asuka said, her face alight with infectious enthusiasm. "See, this is why we did this in the first place! No one can trifle with us! We're Evangelion Pilots!"

"Not to ruin the mood or anything," Hikari said cautiously, "but what did they say when they yelled at you this morning? You were gone the entire time!"

Oh, just the usual nonsense about defacing government property, being more responsible, and bluh bluh bluh. Nothing important." The redhead's face twitched in annoyance. "As if I would do anything that would endanger my Unit-02." She leaned back in her chair, stretching her legs out, still feeling a little sore from the night's escaped. "They're still trying to decide what our punishment should be, but it's not like they can do all that much to us. There isn't exactly a surplus of pilots hanging around, you know. We don't grow on trees, after all." She shrugged, popping a potato chip into her mouth. "Maybe tell these two that they can't date, I suppose. You, know ground us, with a curfew, and all that."

Shinji blushed a bright red as three sets of eyes swiveled to stare at him and Rei, the others just now realizing just how close the pair was sitting to each other. Rei put a hand over top of his.

"There is no power on Earth that can tear us apart." she stated flatly as Shinji turned a deeper shade of red but nodded in agreement.

Jaws dropped as Hikari shook her head, fishing around in her bag for her phone, intent on getting a picture of the newly official couple. "When did this happen?" she asked, snapping the picture, "Was it at the party?" she sounded a little hurt. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"It was this morning." Asuka said before the other could answer, looking inordinately pleased with herself. "It was after I called Wondergirl out for copping feels on the Idiot here."

Energy drink shot out of Kensuke's nose and mouth as he started to choke, while Toji and Hikari stared at Rei, who blankly look ed back at them.

"I like the way his butt feels." she said, as completely deadpan as she normally was. "He has a nice butt."


	30. Chapter 30

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion.

Shoutout: Thanks to Judicar Deimos for German Translations and Proofreading!

Now with less errors! Now not repeated! Hooray!

Author's Notes at the bottom.

Shinji stared down the range through the scope of the rifle. It was a four power magnification piece, and with it he could see clearly his man sized target nearly a kilometer away. Beside him, Kaji watched through a pair of binoculars, patiently waiting for the boy to take the shot. Behind them, Rei sat with her usual stillness while Asuka fidgeted with impatience.

It wasn't that she didn't appreciate her wingmate's marksmanship skills or that she begrudged him the time he needed to practice. She was actually very proud of his skills with both rifle and pistol, constantly bragging about it in the classes that they shared. It was one of the things that he actually seemed to care about on the level that normal people did their hobbies, and more over, it was a useful martial skill to boot.

He was also a lot less frightening with a firearm than when he fought in a melee.

So, no, Asuka did not fidget because of Shinji, although she, and everyone else present, could have explained that.

She was fidgeting because of Kaji, but not because of the reasons the man might have thought. She wasn't anxious for them to be done on the range, and to get on with the rest of the day's activities, being one of those few rare days where there were no tests to be done, no drills, nothing. They were officially free for the day, but remanded into the Agent's care while Misato was away at Kyoto, along with the rest of the senior NERV command staff, going over last week's events with some governmental investigative committee or another.

Asuka just didn't want to be anywhere near the man.

It was a beautiful spring day, and he had asked them what they all wanted to do. They could pick one activity each, and everyone would go and do it as a group. Shinji had won the draw to see what they did first, and he had wanted to go to the range, while Asuka wanted to go shopping, followed by Rei's choice of the Tokyo-3 Science Museum. So, to the range they went, with the usual arsenal that accompanied the boy when he went.

Pistols, rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers and even a recoilless rifle were all laid out for them on the NERV shooting range, and they had all ran through them, even though only Shinji had fired the 84mm 'Carl Gustav' recoilless rifle. If Kensuke were to ever accompany them to the range, he'd probably die of happiness seeing the assembled weaponry. Then again, he would also die of sheer embarrassment at how outclassed he was by the pilots. His weekends of running about the woods with an airsoft rifle were no match for actually using the weapons on a near daily basis. Both girls were proficient with rifles and pistols, both being standard armaments for the Evangelions, but Shinji always shot better than them. It seemed that there was nothing that he couldn't hit once you put a firearm in his hands. It was perhaps the one aspect of being a pilot that she did not begrudge his skill – no one was a better shot than Shinji. No one.

His prone form stilled even more for a fraction of a second as he held his breath, and his finger gently pulled back on the trigger. There was the crack of the shot, and Rei nodded as she lowered her own pair of binoculars.

"He hit it," she remarked, an unnecessary piece of conversation. Shinji always hit what he was aiming for, it seemed. It didn't matter if it was the behemoth bulk of Ramiel, or a man sized target moving erratically along a series of hiding places at eight hundred meters. His marksmanship needed no commentary, but Rei spoke more often now, dropping 'unnecessary' comments into her speech like a normal person as the months of living with the Horakis having taken their toll on the taciturn girl. Their friend was proud of this, even if most of Rei's comments were strange and seemed to only make sense to herself.

"Of course he hit it." Asuka said with a shake of her head and a smile. "He always hits them." She clapped dutifully as the others came over, the man grinning and the boy with a small satisfied smile of his own. "Good job, Third." She sprang up from the bench, stretching. "Now let's get a move on – it's time to go shopping!"

Shinji nodded as he set the rifle down on the table. Today he wasn't going to clean the weapons he had shot, with the sole exception of his own personal pistols. But they would wait until the end of the day, after the girl's activities were done with. Checking his pair of pistols again to ensure that they were cleared, he set them into their cases and locked them. One of the Section 2 agents would see that they were delivered to the apartment while they were out.

His hand seeking Rei's, he nodded again. "Let's go."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"So you have no idea how it happened." The board-member's voice was dry and bordering on the sarcastic, making a statement of fact rather than posing a question. This was somewhat to be expected, as the incident behind the now infamous "Day that Tokyo-3 Stood Still" (as the news agencies were calling it) had been discussed at great length, and it had been already established that none of the NERV personnel present knew just what had happened.

Misato, for once in her dress uniform, forced herself to not roll her eyes at the statement. Of course she didn't know how it had happened! That's why it was a mystery! But these dried up stiffs had no appreciation for that fact, just like they had no appreciation for how hard she worked to keep things running under the most trying of circumstances, or the fact that this stupid investigative committee owed their very existence to her pilot corps. It was quite the trade-off, saving the world. On one hand, the world continued to exist, and almost everyone on it. On the other hand, that included men like these. It was always the soldiers who suffered and died, and it was the politicians who picked at things later on, like vultures. But that was the status quo, and that's what it was all about. God's in His Heaven, all's right with the World.

"No, sir. I have no idea how it happened. It should have not been possible." Not a lie, but not a complete truth. She had a hunch how it happened, and it was an ugly one. One with the direst of implications, one that raised more questions than it answered.

Sabotage. She also had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach that she knew who was responsible for it, too.

It seemed, however, that it was a popular hunch.

"No, Major Katsuragi. It should have been quite impossible for three separate nuclear reactors to go off-line at the same time. What's even more impossible is that there is not even the smallest shred of evidence as to how any of it had happened. That alone would be cause to convene this panel of inquiry."

_True, _she thought to herself. _But it's just as impossible as to how the Angel escaped being noticed by any other of the MAGI networks around the world, or the JSSDF's own sensor system, or the United Nation's, or the Americans. But it did._

"It is a mystery," she offered, "but the investigation is still underway."

"By the very organization that failed to protect the Geo-Front in the first place." The old man's voice dripped with scorn. Once again, Misato had to wonder what the point of this all was. It wasn't as if she could be reasonably expected to know what had happened. That wasn't her lane. She hadn't even known that there had been an Angel until after the fact, trapped in the elevator as she was.

Someone was playing games, and she knew that the stone faced bearded man sitting two seats to her left was one of the players. What she didn't know was who was on the other side of the chess board.

"The Second Section of NERV is very good at what they do, sir."

"And what is it, exactly, that they do? NERV is a black organization, Major. Money and men go into it, but nothing ever seems to come out again. There is no real oversight on NERV apart from the superficial appointment of liaison officers like yourself, and even less on Project-E. This is quite surprising, when one considers that the UN, NATO and the Commonwealth of Independent States all funnel funds into NERV, and that the so-called Angels are defeatable only by the Evangelions. These weapons are fielded solely by NERV, and there seems to be very little going on in the way of research into other ways to protect mankind, or even study the remains of the monsters themselves, outside this organization."

Misato frowned, confused. This meeting wasn't going the way that the others had. "Sir?"

The chairman narrowed his eyes at her. "You seem to misunderstand why we are here today, Major. We are no longer investigating the event. We are now investigating NERV." He looked to the other members of the day's panel as he opened the dossier in front of him. "Now, if everyone will open to page thirty seven, we will begin with the agreed services and goods to be provided to the United Nations, and then we will discuss what the drafters of the legislature were led to believe. Following that, we will begin with the second set of files, and examine the agreed-upon responsibilities of NERV in the so-called Angel Incidents."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

_One Week Ago…_

Rei frowned at her reflection in the window, feeling a faint uneasiness beginning to stir in the center of her stomach. While she was not unacquainted with the feeling, it was still a feeling that she was not accustomed to. She was, in almost all things and events, completely sure of herself and her purpose. In those rare cases where she was ill at ease, there were clear and perfectly reasonable explanations for it.

There was no such reason now, and that fact alone added to her unrest.

The current lesson was algebra, which she had thoroughly mastered some years ago. Shinji sat next to her, paying rapt attention to the instructor, oblivious to his surroundings, humming softly to himself. This was as it should be, and so he was not the cause. In front of them sat Hikari and Soryu, the class representative taking careful notes that she in fact did not need, but would use to help tutor other students. The redheaded captain of the Evangelion pilots was ostensibly following along in the math text book, but was instead idly paging through a book written in German, and thus obviously more interesting to the girl than the lesson. She too had mastered the lesson being taught this hour long ago.

So, everything was as she was accustomed to it being. Nothing seemed to be out of place, nor did anything seem to be posing a potential danger to Shinji, herself, Soryu or Hikari.

Still, the queasiness in her stomach bothered her. It was not quite like the strange distant feelings that she experienced when the Angels were approaching, nor the overpowering crush of feeling that came from being in the company of Lilith. Even the sheer terror of her exposure to the reduced sample of ADAM had not left her feeling like this. This was like a gentle lullaby compared to a frenzied orchestra. But it was somehow familiar to her, like a faint and distant echo.

Turning from the window, she called up the messaging program on her laptop and connected to the MAGI.

**Unknown: Hello, Pilot Ayanami. What can We do for you?**

**R. Ayanami: Is there anything unusual on the sensor net?**

**Unknown: We have not noticed anything. Please wait. **

…**.**

**Unknown: There is nothing out of the ordinary on any scans. Nothing on the primary, secondary or tertiary defensive nets. Main sensor walls report all clear. All internal systems are reporting as normal. Are you concerned as to the status of your current experiments? **

**R. Ayanami: No. The only experiments that are of immediate concern are well in hand. All is proceeding according to predicted schedule, and no delays are anticipated at this stage of events. **

**Unknown: You have let many other experiments fall to the wayside in lieu of the current two. Although both of these experiments can also hardly be called such, as well.**

Rei blinked. She could agree that the two current experiments that she was in the midst of conducting were not, in fact, truly Scientific in nature, but she had not thought that the MAGI would be so disapproving of them. The genius intelligences that comprised the secondary parent of her childhood had always been supportive and helpful in her pursuit of Science.

While she was well aware that she had halted a not inconsiderable amount of research on a variety of subjects in addition to the experiments that were, for want of a better term, purely for fun, she had not thought much of it. She was, after all, exploring new territory with her work on Shinji, and it wasn't as if anything that she was going to discover was going to matter in the long run. She was still just marking time until her death, even if she no longer wished each day that it would be the one that she was called upon to die.

They had expressed what could be called concern for her recent choices in the past, but never had they been so disapproving of the body of her work.

She closed the program down without further comment, slouching forwards again with her chin in one hand, staring off into space. The Commander had always said that one's personal feelings were not a deciding factor in the ultimate problem. Was she letting personal attachment cloud her judgment?

It was something that bore further attention, even if she did not think her growing unease meant that she was developing a 'guilty conscience' over the fact that she had abandoned her previous methodology and rigorous experiments for a set of experiments of a different nature.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kaji looked down at the young man who was slouched against the wall of his apartment with open doubt. "You're from higher?"

Kaworu smiled smugly. "From the Highest," he confirmed with a nod. He nodded at the sheaf of papers in the spy's hands. "You have your instructions, and I have mine." He pushed himself off the wall and walked down the hall to the apartment's front door, pausing at the entrance, not looking back. "I'll be seeing you around, Mr. Kaji."

Leafing through the extensive document, Kaji frowned as he read. His new assignment was more in-depth than mere information gathering – sabotage was much more dangerous than observation, and in more ways than the obvious. This was something that a senior handler ought to have brought to him. Definitely not some kid, even if he had managed to get inside his apartment.

And just what had he meant by his parting remark?

Shaking his head, he dumped the papers into the sink and started the faucet. This new move would place him at odds with Ikari and NERV – not something he was ready for just yet. He was on the verge of breaking into something big – he knew it, he just knew it.

He had been spoiled thus far into this assignment, he knew. Of course, he had done a lot of string-pulling to get it that way, a lot of backroom deals. But it had to end sometime. Everything did.

Mashing the sodden mass of rice paper into a ball, he scooped it up and tossed it into the trash. He had to get back to work. Soon it was going to be dagger and cloak work, and he would have to act fast if he was going to keep all the plates he had in the air spinning.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji sighed as he set the phone down on the table, slumping slightly back against the couch. Asuka snorted in general derision at him and resumed reading her magazine. Misato smiled understandingly at the boy over her beer. "Didn't go so well, huh?"

"No," he said, glumly shaking his head, "it didn't. I thought that it was getting better..." He trailed off, staring into space. "I mean, it's not that I don't want you to go to parent-teacher night, Misato, but..."

"But you want daddy to come instead?" Asuka finished her wingman's sentence, a small amount of scorn in her voice. "Your father is even weirder than your girlfriend. I don't know why you'd want him to come to parent-teacher night. I don't even know why you even care about such a thing! Big deal, so he doesn't want to come to some boring function. It's not like he even notices you in the halls at work, or anything."

"Asuka!" Misato snapped, a bit reproachfully. "He just wants his father to see him as a son, not just an employee." Asuka rolled her eyes but kept silent, content with shaking her head dismissively.

"Misato, how well do you know my father? I mean, you've worked at NERV for a while, right? I just don't understand him."

Misato shrugged half-heartedly. "I've known of him for longer than I've known him."

"I mean, he commented on my improved performance in the drills a few days ago, and he nodded at me this morning, and that's more than he's ever done since I got here!"

"And you thought that he might decide to go himself instead of delegating it to me? Shinji, even though he could probably stand to get out from underground to be a father for a few hours, he is a very busy man. Ritsuko says that sometimes he doesn't leave his office for days."

"Well, yeah, I suppose that it was a dumb idea..." the boy trailed off, sounding depressed and unconvinced.

Asuka sat up straight, the magazine violently crumpling in her hands. "Look, Idiot, why is he going to take the time out of his busy schedule of doing god knows what to go to something that Misato is already going to be at? Of all the idiotic, harebrained ideas that you could ever entertain about that man, this is one of the worst!" She switched over to German, ranting on for a minute until Misato tossed a crumpled up napkin at her.

"How did you meet my father, Misato?"

The older woman paused for a moment, caught off guard by her charge's question. After a moment's consideration, she sighed. "It's pretty complicated. I first met him a long time ago, even before he was the Commander." This caused both teenagers to sit up and look at her, obviously interested. "He worked for, or with, I'm not really sure which, my father. Before the Second Impact, he was a researcher in my father's expedition."

"Wait, your father had an expedition?" Asuka interrupted, frowning, and then with a little shriek, she scooted back against the couch, pointing at the woman, gaping in shock. "The **KATSURAGI **Expedition? That one?"

"It was in the Mountains of Madness, where I met him for the first time. My father probably introduced him to me, I don't remember. I probably met your mother too; although I don't think she was ever at the site as much or as long as your father. I was just a kid then. My parents were fighting again, and my mother wanted a divorce. He brought me along for a trip, mostly as a peace offering to her. He was much more traditional than she was – he wouldn't dream of a divorce."

Shinji was staring, his eyes wide. "He... your father was there at the Impact, wasn't he?" he asked, his voice small and catching a little.

"Yes, he was there." Misato said with a sigh. "From what I understand, your father missed it by a few days." She drained the last her beer, and stood up, heading for her room. "Don't stay up too late, kiddos."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

The room was padded and lit with soft, comfortable lights. There was nothing in the room that was deemed to be dangerous, and but the room's occupant paid no heed to anything in the room, instead just sitting in the chair and staring straight ahead and reliving the same thirty minutes over and over. The attendants could have left anything in the room, and the girl would not have noticed it.

She was pale, but clean, and her hair was cut at the shoulders, but not by any of her own choosing. That was all the doing of her caretakers, but she paid them no more heed than she did the furniture of the room. Living in the past, she had no time for those in the present.

In her mind, she was not in the special care ward, but back on a continent that no longer existed. It had been three years since the Day of Second Impact, but for Misato Katsuragi, the sole survivor of the now infamous Katsuragi Expedition, every day was the same half hour.

She had been up late, far past her bedtime, but her father never bothered to enforce any curfew.

She had been playing with some of the local penguins, despite repeated warnings from other expedition personnel not to interact with the wildlife, as she could get severely hurt, citing several examples and rules. No one ever bothered to enforce those rules either. But whenever they yelled at or lectured her, well, at least it was attention.

So she had been sleeping in, when suddenly there was a tremendous earthquake, setting off numerous alarms all over the wildly shaking base. He father had barged into her room, scooping her up off her bed in one panicked motion, before turning around and running through the halls. Frightened, she clung tightly to her father, not saying a word, staring in turns at his bloody head, his panicked expression, and the hallways of the compound. The base was on fire, smoke filling the halls, and the screams of the alarms only adding to the hellish landscape. The ground shook again as a new scream came tearing through the air, overpowering the other alarms. Something hit her head, and then when she woke up again she was lying down in one of the emergency life support capsules, her father kneeling over her, hands looped around her head. He gently pushed her back down onto the cushioned interior, before saying what would be his last words, almost inaudible over the screaming klaxons.

"I've always loved you, Misa-chan. Always."

He pulled back suddenly, hands fumbling at the external controls, and the protective cowling slid out and locked into place, the automated life support systems switching on.

The same terrifying scream sounded again, and there was a massive flash of light, blocked out momentarily by the shape of her father, who had thrown himself over the window in one last vain attempt to protect his daughter.

He died instantly, and so she was spared having to watch him suffer, but as the massive wave of fire and energy washed over them, she watched him vaporize, leaving nothing but an outline etched into the window, indelibly etching into her memory the moment that she became an orphan. Then the tube was picked up and wildly thrown around by the blast, and she blacked out again.

When she came to, she scrambled to open up the capsule. The cowling slid open without complaint, and warm air rushed in. Sitting up, she stared out at the hell that had been brought to Earth. With one hand clasped to her aching head, she lifted up the crucifix pendant that her father had given her, staring into its reflective surface in shock. Impossibly, she heard the screaming alarm again. Misato looked up, and where the heart of the continent of ice had been was only a massive giant, His burning radiance responsible for the reddish light that bathed the seascape. He stood there, His waist rising up out of the clouds of steam and smoke that hung over the waters around it, reaching His vast arms towards the sky, either in supplication or in joy. Four great wings slowly unfolded from His back, tracing incandescent through the sky, and then He looked at her. His eyes were even brighter pinpoints of fire in the burning light, and when His mouth opened to scream, it too was alight with dancing flames.

She began to scream, and was screaming still a few days later when the rescue crews found her, sitting still in the capsule as it bobbed up and down on the waves, not feeling anything, not the heat, not dehydration or starvation, not her concussion or even the fact that she had been partially disemboweled, a huge gaping wound running almost completely diagonally across her abdomen, the sole survivor of the fury of Second Impact, the miracle child. She would scream for another three months, almost constantly when she was awake, until the day when she woke up one morning to find that she could scream and cry no more. But although she had been quiet for over two years, she was still lost in that same nightmare.

Had she even been cognizant of the man standing against the wall watching her, she would not have remembered him from the base. They had moved in different circles, and she had only been introduced to him once. But he knew who she was; there had not been many children in attendance in the labs. He watched her for a few more minutes before moving to kneel before her, staring into her blank eyes. It was a look that he recognized. It was a look that he had seen countless times in the mirror. But he was not daunted by this task, this seemingly impossible errand any more than he allowed the fact that he was building an altar upon which to sacrifice his son. That was not the path to victory. Then, in a low, even voice, he began to explain.

He told her of the incident, of the Impact. He spoke of shattered families, of broken homes. Myriads of plots and the tightly woven plans of old men he laid bare before her, and more. He spoke of the coming conflicts, and of the terrifying, inescapable conclusion that lay before them, of Third Impact. Then, he spoke to her of hope, of hate, and of his own plans. He talked for over five hours, laying out the basis of his plots and plans, and of the parts that she might take within them. He had no way of knowing if he was getting through to her, if he was just wasting his time, but he kept talking until there was simply no more to say.

"Learn to fight. Become a master of combat, of strategy and tactics. Learn to lead others into battle, fearless and without doubt. Master these own emotions within you, and master them well. The Angels will return, and if there is no one to stand against them, then Man will pass from this place. Our time is running out, but we can flip the hourglass. Any place can be Heaven, if we make it so.

Do you want vengeance? So you want them to pay the price for their callousness? For their insult to you? They took your father from you, and your mother. They took everything from you. Will you have the will to take from them sevenfold in vengeance repaid?

Become a master of war. Do this, and I will seek you out. Together, we shall have our revenge. Together, we shall save the world."

He stood up, and carefully, almost reverently, placed the battered crucifix around her neck, before kissing her forehead.

"Keep the faith, Misa-chan. You are not alone in this world. You have nothing to lose," he said with a small, apologetic smile, "and nothing to lose means that you have everything to gain."

He turned and left, leaving the hospital the same way that he had entered it; unnoticed by anyone but those he wanted to know. It would not do for this visit to be noted by his enemies, even at this stage of affairs.

The next day, Misato scared the living daylights out of the day shift nurse when she walked out into the hallway, asking for breakfast. It would be a long time until the young girl began to slow down, instead of rushing about at high speed. It seemed to all who knew of her that she was trying to make up for lost time. While they were all thankful that she was back, nobody knew what had prompted the change. She didn't even know. When pressed for an explanation, she could only shrug and say that she 'just woke up'. She had no idea what had happened, no memory of any part of the past three years.

But she knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to help make the world a safer place, a better place. A place where the innocent and weak would not be preyed upon by the evil and the strong. The United Nations Army seemed like a logical starting point.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Hikari glanced over at Rei, who was running a brush through Nozomi's hair with mechanical precision as she explained the fundamentals of the Scientific Process to the younger girl as she worked through her homework.

She herself was going over her sister's literature homework, checking with a practiced eye for spelling mistakes and other errors. Something had been bothering Rei ever since they had cleaned up after dinner, with Kodama going out for the night with her latest boyfriend and her father disappearing into his study. The girl had seemed more distant than she had been in recent weeks.

It was a few hours later, when they were going through their nightly routine of preparing for bed when she brought it up. "What's been bothering you? You've been kinda distant today."

Rei rinsed off her toothbrush, running it back and forth under the water until it was satisfactorily clean. "Family dinners serve as a primary means of bonding, do they not?" She paused momentarily before elaborating. "It builds trust between the provider of the meal and the recipients, and promotes mutual feelings of belonging and promotes discussion."

"Sure, I suppose they are, if you look at it like that." Hikari was unsure where her friend was going with her question. "I mean, for a lot of families these days it is the only time they get to spend together. Maybe it's just in Tokyo-3, but in most families, both parents work."

"Family units with tasks at various times and places do not often have schedules with other opportunities for joint recreation and verbal discourse."

Hikari wasn't sure if Rei was agreeing with her or simply making another statement. She decided to press on anyways.

"So what's got you thinking about it?"

Rei sat down on the toilet, staring at the towel rack. "Kodama brought her boyfriend to dinner tonight. Does this imply more familiarity and that he is considered to be part of the family unit?"

"Well... yes and no." Hikari said after a moment's deliberation. "He's not really part of the family, but it shows that they are good friends, and that she wants us to like him, and vice versa." She started brushing her teeth again to buy time. This was a tricky subject, and it was certainly more complicated than all that! But Rei had a thing about gray areas and complicated subjects – she had to niggle and worry at them, pick them apart until she was satisfied with how they were supposed to work. If she let her, Rei would be up all night asking questions and "doing research". As it was, Rei was watching her expectantly, waiting for more information to clarify the statement.

"So he is not considered to be part of the family, but is thought of in more intimate terms by Kodama?"

Hikari nodded, although not altogether sure that she wanted to be thinking of her sister and just who she was feeling intimate with. But it was a fair explanation, even without going into all the little details. Rinsing, she washed off her toothbrush and set it in the cup. "So what brought all of this on?"

Rei stood up, yawning. "I would like to have a family dinner with Shinji."

Hikari nodded with a smile, satisfied that she had both figured out the mystery behind her friend's questions, and that the girl had properly cleaned herself up for the night. "You want to invite him to dinner tomorrow? I'll tell Dad about it in the morning."

"No," Rei said, shaking her head. "I want to have a family dinner with him and Commander Ikari."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei stood before the Commander, a mirror image of his own stoic exterior. She had explained what she wanted to do, and was waiting for him to agree. There was nothing else to do but wait. There was no argument that he could use to deny her request, for she had a counter for any point or issue he might raise.

He had sat at his desk, putting aside the report he had been reading when she had entered the office, and had listened to her, as he always did. The plan was simple enough and straightforward in its execution and the expected outcome was generally considered to be positive, by normal standards. It also wasn't anything that he was personally opposed to (to), either.

However, it would completely ruin things. It was an undeniable fact that as time went on, as the Scenario progressed, that things began to hinge more and more on a few key pieces. He was constructing a tower of cards, and almost anything could bring things crashing down around them. Too much pressure at any juncture could cause the boy to snap, and he was the key to Unit-01, and Unit-01 was the key to victory. He had thought that he had been doing well at keeping the two at arm's length from him while still being secure in their loyalties, but Shinji's recent request for him to show up to the parent-teacher meeting showed that he obviously wasn't doing enough. The line he had forced himself to walk was a thin, hard one, with little room for error. It was hard, being the Commander.

"I will think about it."

Rei seemed to be satisfied with the answer, and left without further comment. Gendo turned his attention back to his work, reading over the reports from the laboratory over in the Americas, where they were working on the Angelic remains from the fourth Angel. The west-coast American facility was tasked with building a S2 Engine, building upon the work of Yui and Dr. Katsuragi. Doctors Anderson and Smith were supposedly close to a breakthrough, if their exuberant emails were to be believed. The most recent reports did look promising, but Gendo wasn't getting the feeling of being tantalizingly close to discovering the secret of the Super-Solenoid. As things were right now, the system was only slight less cost-prohibitive than harnessing the released energy from matter annihilation in an anti-matter reactor.

Putting the papers back on the desk, he sighed and stood up to pace the room, trying to expend some of the nervous energy building up in him. He had a meeting in a few hours with SEELE, supposedly to discuss the current time-line and the expected arrival of the next Angel. The documents remained vague, but he had to admit that Kiel did seem to have some insight in deciphering the mystic mumbo jumbo that they were written in.

Stopping to stare out over the Geo-Front, he watched the lift trains as they ferried their passengers to and fro, traversing between the surface world and the sanctuary of the subterranean one. On one of those trains, Rei was leaving his kingdom for the surface, to meet, no doubt, with his son, perhaps allowing him to escort her to her new home. The allegory was not lost on him. They were still separated by degrees of uncertainty and doubt, but the growing familiarity between the two was going to win before too long. They were loyal to each other, and within limits, to Pilot Soryu. But he needed them to be loyal to NERV, to him. The young German girl was not so important as she thought, even if she had her uses. Shinji and Rei, however, they were the keys to his plans, and at this point, it was not advantageous to decant a new clone. Her bonds to him remained strong, but tenuous. This would be a good way to ensure that they remained true to him, and that she would remain true to him.

As pessimistic as he was, he did not see anything too terrible that could come from a simple, homemade dinner. He had enough self control for an entire monastic order. If he could keep his calm in the presence of mass murdering genocidal lunatics, he could enjoy a dinner with three quarters of what could pass for his family.

The door chimed softly as it opened, allowing Ritsuko Akagi entry. The door whispered shut behind her, the lock engaging with a soft click. "It's time for your checkup."

He turned away from the view, withdrawing his hands from his pockets. He peeled off the glove on his right hand, the white leather coming free with an awful, wet, sucking sound as blood splattered onto the floor; a deep red intermixed with blobs of orange. "It no longer hurts as bad as it first did." He flexed his hand, opening and closing his fist, watching the nascent god-thing quiver with each movement. "But… there is something else... a whisper in the dark."

The scientist scrutinized the skinless hand, wet red muscle and embryonic Angel. "What does He say?" she asked as she pulled on a pair of latex gloves. Taking his pulse, she avoided her lover's eyes. "Does He give any insight into His Progeny?"

"No. He does not speak. It is music that I hear in the back of my mind."

"Music?"

Gendo nodded. "The Music of the Spheres, and the Song of Creation. It is unsettling. It haunts my every waking moment, and it is there at night when I sleep." He stared at his bloody hand, at the slightly twitching fetus. "I have seen outside the confines of time and space in my dreams, of midnight abysses and of cities shining with a light of brilliant, blinding radiance. Worlds I have seen, populated with the children of the Angels, and I know that these worlds will never come to be, they must not come to be; for it will mean that we have failed and Mankind has gone into the abyss."

He looked extremely weary, years of worry and little sleep etched onto his face. Ritsuko felt her heart leap and spasm in her chest to see him that way. But even here, as worn down as he appeared, there was no denying that he was made of iron, his will hard and unyielding. "SEELE thinks to join all of us in Instrumentality, to realize the power of the Angels, to join our souls as one. What will they reign over? Lilith chose to skip the intermediary step. She bore us, instead of several younger gods, to fight and vie for supremacy. Ours is not their way, Her way is not Adam's." He watched the sleeping god twitch, under-developed legs kicking. "Their way is madness."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei walked around the Evangelion cage, empty save for her and Unit-00. All of the normal maintenance had been completed for the day, and the technicians assigned to Unit-00 had left to oversee the work on the spare component pieces for her war-machine. To the casual observer, she was simply checking the data feeds from the blue and white titan. Rei needed nothing so crass to check up on the Evangelion, however. She was instead deep in conversation with her older sister.

_He said that he would consider the invitation._

_**He will attend. He loves us too much to not do so. But I do not think that he loves his son.**_

_You are incorrect. He loves him very much, but he must save Mankind. To do so, he must sacrifice the both of us. _

Somehow, Rei got the impression that the Evangelion shrugged. Her sister had never really come to accept that the Commander was so dedicated to his cause that he would sacrifice them.

_How are things going with you and Unit-01?_

_**Things... are going. He still refuses to speak to me. But our suspicions are correct; it is not Yui Ikari who resides within the core. I know this much. Whoever it is, it is not an adult woman.**_

_What does Doctor Soryu think?_

_**She is not certain. She knows of no one else so deeply involved with the boy to offer synchronization at levels that he is able to maintain. She also doesn't know who else could have participated in a contact experiment. **_

_So she was unaware of the spare cores then?_

_**She claims that she did not know. I find this spurious – I don't think that someone as involved in the Evangelion work as she was could have been in the dark about the planned program for recruiting pilots. The system demands the joining of souls, and it utilizes the deep maternal instincts between mother and child to realize maximum effectiveness. That is why our Father does not pilot Unit-01 with Yui Ikari. He loves her, but she does not love him enough to join with him.**_

Frowning, Rei closed out of the maintenance software. It was time to check up on another project, several floors down, but the distance would not interfere with their conversation.

The men and women of NERV had long come to accept that the young girl had free run of the facility, no matter where or when she might be found. After several years of unaccompanied access to all levels of the fortress, she was ignored by everyone save a few security men, who did not bother to trail after her once she was inside the Geo-Front. They would wait for her to come back to the surface, no matter how long the wait was. The MAGI also aided in her jaunts around the inside, by digitally removing her from the surveillance feeds when asked. They understood the necessity for security in certain experiments, and they were all too happy to help.

While this was less an experiment than others, they had agreed to doctor certain documents to cover her tracks. Resuming her work and experiments that had been on hold had pleased them, and the intelligences were amicable to her requests for small favors in other areas.

Areas such as the appropriation, or in this case, the manufacture of nuclear warheads.

Amongst other weapons and technologies, NERV had a small stockpile of the forbidden weapons, some manufactured on-site, some purchased through one or another of Gendo's under the table black market deals. They were key to several scorched earth contingencies, hidden away in the some of the deeper warehouses, in theory accessible only under the direct orders of the Commander or Sub-Commander.

The somewhat distressing trend of the Angels becoming harder and harder to kill had not escaped the young woman. She wanted to make sure that she had easy, almost immediate access to anything that she needed in order to destroy the Angelic Invaders. If one turned out to be more than what they could handle with what NERV gave them, she was not going to be unprepared.

_**How is the process?**_

_The Plutonium harvesting from the reactors is proceeding on schedule. The containment shell and delivery system will be done soon._

_**The lance idea is still ridiculous. **_

_Your idea was ridiculous. Fission weapons systems are meant to be used at range and not in a melee. Apart from that, the Lance of Ayanami will make an excellent addition to the armory, especially once we obtain the Lance of Longinus._

_**Our AT Field will be more than enough to handle any sort of nuclear weapon. The attacks of the Angels have released more energy than most weapons in our arsenals. **_

_I do not love Science enough to hug a mushroom cloud, no matter how many times you suggest it._

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei shifted slightly in her seat, hearing the phone vibrate inside her schoolbag. The message was succinct and to the point.

Friday evening. I will be free from four to six_._

She did not smile as she dropped the phone back into her bag. Instead, she sent Hikari an even shorter message.

**R. Ayanami: Dinner is on Friday.**

Hikari stirred out of studious stillness, her eyes snapping to the message program.

**H. Horaki: That's great! It gives us a few days to finalize the menu and go shopping! **

**H. Horaki: Have you told Shinji yet?**

**R. Ayanami: I will tell him today during practice at NERV.**

She closed the program, and went back to staring out the window, the droning of the history instructor fading into the background, not even paying a little attention to his review of the past decade. She was already satisfied with the menu that they had come up with, and none of it really needed anyone else's help in preparations – which was vital.

While it was true that their father loved them both, he had his reasons for not showing it to Shinji except through the most remote and complicated ways, ways that the boy did not see or understand. He still resented his father, and feared him on several levels as well. This dinner would do much to help reunite the two men in her life. But she wanted to make this as successful as possible, and she would not accept any deviations in her scenario – and so she would be taking steps to ensure that everything went according to plan.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka growled in frustration from where she was reviewing the data feed from Shinji's entry plug. "How does he do it?" she complained, pointing to the waveform that represented his AT Field. "How does he have such fine control over the AT Field at these levels – he's not even at a fifty percent setting! He shouldn't be able to shape the fields like that. It goes against all the research and developmental tests we did on Wondergirl and me! What makes him so special?"

Ritsuko smirked at her assistant as she typed away at her terminal, lowering the cap on the boy's synchronization ratio, watching the waveform shudder for a moment before stabilizing. "Well Asuka," she said in a bored tone, "there is one way that makes him different from you and Rei."

"Don't patronize me! I refuse to believe that just because he's got a Y chromosome that he's got an advantage with the Evangelion. It's not built like that!" She threw her arms up in the air in frustration, watching, flabbergasted, as Shinji reshaped the defensive field so that it was visible to the naked eye, the glowing yellow hexagons just barely noticeable. "Now look at this Blödsinn!"

Aoba looked over at the irate girl with a frown. "Well, he did have a higher baseline score when we first plugged him into the entry plug than either of you two," he said with a shrug before going back to his panel, monitoring the readings from the boy's central nervous system. "He just might be a natural at it – like some people are just good at sports, or music. He's good at Evangelions."

"But his Marduk scores are garbage! He should just be acceptable as a pilot, not able to play the AT Field like it was his cello!" She scowled at the screen, and punched in a new query to the MAGI from her terminal, stabbing at the keyboard. She pointed at new readouts, her finger quivering in rage. "See? See? Look at this! He simply should not be able to do this, unless everything that we know about the AT Field is wrong!"

Maya scooted over to the girl's screen, frowning. "She's right. He's running at a thirty percent synch right now, and only on two emitters. The AT Field shouldn't be able to envelop him, but he's got a complete bubble."

Ritsuko walked over, peering at the diagram. The Evangelion was indeed encased in a complete bubble, shielded on all sides by the force field. Leaning over both girls, she opened up a line to the titan.

"Shinji, go ahead and hold what you've got right now. We're going to begin the next phase of the test at this time. I want you to keep your field up for as long as possible."

"Yes ma'am." The boy's response was somewhat strained, and if he hadn't been encased in LCL, he probably would have had a sheen of sweat on his face. As it was, he looked a little pale, and his eyes were extremely dilated.

Standing back up, the doctor nodded to Makoto. He typed a rapid string of commands into the MAGI, and a dull clanking sounded throughout the lab as the next part of the test got underway. Ten 155mm howitzer cannons deployed and took aim at the giant, and began to fire rapidly in a random sequence. The field shone brighter at the points of impact, deflecting the rounds in some cases and causing others to simply drop to the ground, based off where on the AT Field they hit.

Asuka studied the sensor readings from the field projectors, watching as they tried to keep an even level of protection for the armored giant. The waveform shifted back and forth under the onslaught, vanishing in some areas to reinforce in others. She twirled a strand of hair around a finger absently as she watched.

Behind the Evangelion, another group of doors opened up and ten more cannons sighted on their target, battering the back of the Evangelion. Shinji shuddered onscreen, but the war machine remained steady, shrugging off the new attacks.

Behind the assembled technicians, the door opened and Misato strolled in, followed by Rei, dressed in her plug suit and still a little damp from the operational tests she had been running through in the simulator body. Both stood next to the bottle blond as they watched the battery test on the main view screen. "How's our boy doing?" the Major asked cheerfully, pulling her PDA from a pocket and making a few notes. "Rei did very well in the sims today."

"He's doing something weird with his AT Field." Ritsuko said, not taking her eyes off the readouts. "We're doing a few tests to see if we can learn how he's doing it."

Rei stirred a little, her eyes moving from the vid-link in the plug to the cannons firing at Unit-01. "What is he doing?" she asked, trying to make sense of the readouts. They were not anything that she had bothered to study or learn before, being largely unnecessary to her. But if the others were beginning to notice that her boyfriend had unusual abilities when it came to the AT Field and his Evangelion, they might start going over old data more in-depth, and notice the same thing that she had after his first fight.

She did not know what they might do if they found out that he was capable of holding a one hundred percent synchronization rate with the Evangelion. It was theoretically impossible outside of an unregulated Contact Experiment. It was also theoretically impossible to do while maintaining one's Ego Border, and remain corporeal.

"He's doing very well." Misato commented, watching the impacting rounds. "What's he doing that's so weird?"

"He shouldn't be able to hold the AT Field with a visible phase space reaction at this level, is what." Asuka said, pointing at her monitor.

"Asuka, you know that I can't make heads or tails of that stuff." Misato sighed. "I rely on our tech teams to keep an eye on that stuff while I tell you guys to beat the Angels into dust."

"Change to HEAT rounds." Ritsuko ordered, tapping at a side console. "Let's see how he handles explosive rounds instead of solid slugs.

The automatic feeders whined as they shifted, withdrawing and changing out. The barrage started up again, this time the anti-tank rounds exploding against the projected field. The Evangelion shuddered violently as the AT Field struggled as the firing patterns began to shift, raining the explosive rounds all over the giant's profile.

On the secondary screen, the waveform of the AT Field was going insane, dancing about like water on a hot skillet. On the video screen, Shinji's eyes were squeezed shut as he tried to maintain control over his defenses. So far, he was able to not only cause the rounds to detonate on the AT Field as opposed to his physical armor, his field was defeating the Monroe-Effect of the anti-armor rounds, the penetrating explosion of the shaped charge proving to be ineffectual against the force-field.

Rei watched the synchronization level, artificially capped at thirty percent, the locks engaged to keep the inner portion of the plug from descending deeper into the Evangelion, limiting the level at which Shinji could control and manipulate the system. As synchronization between pilot and cybernetic war machine increased, the cockpit of the plug would sink lower into the giant, as the pilot effectively became the Evangelion, coming into contact with the core and transcending the Ego Border. A fully realized Evangelion, with a pilot operating at a complete one hundred percent synchronization, would be able to – in theory at least – fight as if it was the pilot who was a towering giant, protected by armor and his AT Field.

Theory, unfortunately, was not fact. The Evangelions required massive amounts of power to run, and to date there had not been one successful contact experiment. That was the lie that was told to nearly everyone in the know about the science behind the Evangelions.

The truth was that the cyborg giants were born of Man and Angel, culled from the bodies of the First and Second, and that the so called contact experiments were the preparation of the pilot corps, drawing on the maternal instincts built into mankind's genome to give motive and function to the bio-mechanical shadows of the Angels. Having eaten of the tree of knowledge, Mankind was clever. Lilith had chosen a different route than Adam for her progeny.

But for all the cleverness that man was possessed with, there was something to be said for brute force. Even Shinji could not hold out forever under the continuing assault, his natural affinity for manipulating the AT Field only going so far. There was a bright flash as his defenses failed, the actinic light flaring out around the hole. The next several rounds impacted against the armor on the Evangelion, the giant swaying as Shinji lost his concentration, the field dropping entirely for a few moments, before he managed to reestablish it. He appeared to be very pale on the video feed, a sickly cast to his features.

Dr. Akagi ended the test with a curt command. "All right, let's run the data against his past tests. Also, have maintenance crew one check out the armor systems on Unit-01, and replace anything that needs it."

"But the B-Type armor is proof against any regular artillery." Misato protested. "There had better not be anything that needs to be replaced on it!"

"So a check of the armor here to make sure of that will be better than if he's out in combat and it fails on him." Her friend countered. "Maya, go ahead and run retrieval on Shinji, and get him up here. We've got a surprise for the pilots." She said with a grin to the girls.

Misato started to laugh. "So the modifications are complete? I can't wait to-"

"Hush, you!" Ritsuko interrupted. "You'll ruin the surprise."

Asuka shook her head absently, pulling up the raw data from the same test she and Unit-02 had undergone the day prior and comparing it to the information from Shinji's test. Rei only left the control room, heading for the gantry where Shinji would be dropped off after Lieutenant Ibuki recovered the Entry Plug from Unit-01 and locked it into the cradle. While she was mildly curious in what manner of surprise the modifications mentioned was about, she needed to tell him about the dinner at the end of the week.

He was already out of the plug by the time that she got there, still coughing up LCL into the recovery trough. He waved weakly at her as his lungs continued to expel the viscous fluid. She patted him helpfully on the back until he could breath normally again. After he stood back up and wiped his mouth with the offered towel, she hugged him.

"You did very well with the AT Field test today."

"It didn't seem like it," he confessed, using anther towel to try to get the most of the LCL out of his hair, "I had a hard time trying to keep the field up at all. How were your tests? They had you in the simulators, right? Ramiel again today, right?"

"It was Ramiel and Sachiel." She said, grabbing his hand as they walked back to the elevators. "Major Katsuragi said that I did well. I was able to destroy the Third Angel, without much issue, and was able to destroy the Fifth Angel before succumbing to wounds and damage."

Shinji winced as she went into an in-depth explanation of the simulated battle, of her tactics and of the damage she dealt out and took in return. He squeezed her hand. "I'll never let you go into a fight alone."

She squeezed his hand back and leaned in against him as they walked back towards the control room. "Doctor Akagi has some manner of surprise for us. I am not sure what it is in regards to, but I have a surprise for you as well. This Friday I am making dinner for us, and for Commander Ikari. We will have it at the Horaki's home."

The boy stopped, staring at the girl. "What?"

She looked up into his worried eyes, ignoring the doubt and uncertainty on his face. "Please. I know… I know that you do not like him. But… he is your father. You are both important to me."

His face relaxed, but she could still feel the tension in his body. "Friday?" he asked, looking unhappy. He sighed. "The parent-teacher meetings are on Thursday. He said that he wasn't going to go to mine, that he had no time for anything like that, but he's coming to dinner the very next day?"

"He has never shown up to my teacher meetings in the past. It was always Doctor Akagi." She paused, and tugged his arm to get him walking again. "Dinner is more important than meeting with teachers. Your studies have improved recently, in any rate."

"Because of you and Asuka! Not because I think that the classes are interesting or anything."

"If you do not have acceptable grades, Major Katsuragi will not let you use your free time as you want. That is not acceptable."

He laughed at little. "No, I guess not. Do you want any help making dinner or anything? What time did you have planned?"

"I am making dinner. It is a gift, to you and the Commander. You are not allowed to help."

"I want to help out, though! I mean, he is my father."

Rei was quiet for a little while, mulling it over. She and Hikari were going shopping tomorrow evening after she was done at NERV, and thus needed no assistance there. She and Shinji were going to be studying tonight, and could not do anything anyways. "You could obtain decorations, perhaps."

"Decorations? Is it a party type dinner?"

"Sometimes Hikari or Kodama purchase flowers for the center of the table." Rei clarified, thinking about the first time she had seen the class representative put the vase of flowers in place before the evening meal. "If you like, you could get some."

Shinji's response was cut off as Misato rounded the corner. "C'mon you two!" She cried at them, tapping her foot impatiently. "Don't you want to see what the surprise is?" Ushering them into the room, she nodded to Ritsuko. "Okay, I found the lovebirds. Let's get on with the big unveiling, I'm hungry."

Rolling her eyes, Ritsuko grabbed a box from underneath her terminal station. "After the new paint jobs on the Evangelions, I went ahead and had these made up, since we were making some design changes to them anyways, incorporating some improved linkages and sensors." She opened up the box, and handed the pilots each a new plug suit package. "Go ahead and open them up."

Looking at each other, the pilots shrugged and then tore open the wrappers, pulling out their new uniforms. They did not look much different from the current iteration of plug suit, but on the shoulders of the suit was a matching copy of the designs on their Evangelion's shoulder fins. Asuka started to laugh wildly.

"This is great! This gives me an idea! You know what we need?" she asked, a grin on her face as she stuffed the uniform back into the bag.

"What's that, Asuka?" Ritsuko asked, a smile on her face. This was the happiest she had seen the girl in some time, the usually energetically cheerful pilot having been down in the dumps for weeks, and her foul mood seemed to be infectious, being felt by the rest of the technicians that she worked with. Even Maya, with her sometimes annoyingly persistent cheerfulness, had been depressed and unhappy. A truly happy Asuka was a pleasant change.

"Patches! We need Evangelion patches!"

"Patches?" Shinji echoed, looking around to see if anyone was as lost as he was.

"I do not have anything that requires a patch." Rei commented.

"That's because you didn't grow up on army bases." The redhead countered. "I've got a jacket that a patch would be perfect for."

"I did not grow up on military installations." Rei agreed. "I grew up here at NERV."

"You what?" Asuka asked, staring at the girl. "You've always been here?"

"Yes, she's been here as long as I've known her." Ritsuko interjected. "She was selected by the Marduk Institute out of the initial screenings, much like you were, Asuka. She had no other home, having been in one of the state run orphanages in Kyoto-2."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Ritsuko held the mirror in front of the young girl. "See, Rei? Your hair looks much better now."

The young girl studied her reflection, at the neatly trimmed locks of blue. "The appearance of my hair is trivial, Doctor. As long as it does not interfere with the tests, it is acceptable."

The blond doctor sighed as she set the scissors and the mirror down on the counter before undoing the apron that was draped across the girl's front. "Is that what the Commander said?"

"It is what he thinks. The tests are-"

"The tests are important to the future of mankind." The older woman answered. "I've heard it before. Is your homework done?"

"Yes. I completed the assigned problems yesterday afternoon, before the tests." The eight year old girl jumped down out of the chair, smoothing out the front of her jumper. "May I go?"

"Are you going to the library again?"

"Yes, I need to return some books or they will become overdue."

"All right. Go on, have fun. Do you want to have fish sticks for dinner, or noodles?"

The girl stopped at the door of the lab, thinking for a moment with undue gravity. "Noodles."

Ritsuko nodded at the girl and waved her out the door. While she was an obedient child, she certainly was not a polite one. Of course, one could only hold the Commander responsible for that. He certainly saw no use in being polite, only coldly professional. She sighed to herself as she started to clean up the loose strands of hair, looking around at the room. It was messy, which she supposed was normal for a young girl, but she was certain if she didn't sweep up the hair clippings that Rei would just leave them there. She would have to talk to the Commander about that.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

_United Nations Board of Inquiry:_

"NERV is not a military organization. It is the successor to the GEHIRN Artificial Evolution Labs, and is a privately funded, for-profit, international research firm. It receives funding from the UN, from NATO, and from the Commonwealth of Independent Nations. It has branches in numerous countries, and has major holdings on every continent."

"Correct." Gendo replied, staring down the panel of modern-day inquisitors. "All of this information is freely available from our website." He sounded bored and completely at ease.

"But you do not hold the position of CEO. You are referred to as the Supreme Commander. The UN has seconded several military advisers to your senior staff. You maintain weapons systems of strategic importance. You maintain what can only be referred to as a private military. JSSDF generals defer to you on a regular basis. You yourself make regular visits to numerous nations' military complexes, even to those who are, for a lack of a better term, at odds with each other."

"Correct."

Misato sighed inwardly, but forced herself to keep from slumping down in her seat. The inquiry into the workings of NERV was not going well, and the Commander's one word responses were only making the situation worse.

What was even worse than all of that was the fact that the security issues and need to know restraints about the true nature of the war meant that they couldn't tell these pompous fools about anything, even if they needed to in their own defense! Only a few top officials in the world knew the whole story, and until they could squash this board, they would have to suffer this indignity.

The whole affair left her feeling sick to her stomach. She wished that she could mimic the Commander's aura of still being the one in charge. He certainly didn't look or sound any different than normal. If he was as irritated at these proceedings as everyone else was, he was hiding it far better anyone.

"What were you doing when your city, your fortress, with its nigh impossible to fail power systems, sensor arrays and security, went dark?" Another board member spoke up, changing the line of attack. She felt her eyes widen, and she watched her commander from the corner of her eyes, wondering how he was going to respond.

"I was preparing for a family dinner with my son and his girlfriend."

Silence reigned in the room for over a minute as the assembled men and women digested that piece of information. Gendo Ikari did not strike anyone as a family man.

Looking down at his notes, the official continued on, trying to chip away at the bearded man's cold exterior. "Your son, Pilot Shinji Ikari, and his girlfriend, Pilot Rei Ayanami." The man's voice was skeptical, and Misato could just see the questions concerning the pilots' qualifications and the obvious questions of nepotism.

"Correct."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kaji scowled at the blueprints on the screen of his computer tablet, trying to figure out the mess of ducts, cables and pipes. While the on-file blueprints were similar to the Geo-Front's infrastructure, nothing was matching up properly. He could understand that they didn't want to make anything easy for people like him, but at the same time he found it annoying that Gendo had planned for saboteurs in this way years in advance. It was completely unfair.

The fact that he had to isolate three different power plants, all located in the deep underground, from the power grid that ran NERV without permanently destroying their power capability was bad enough. Not for the first time since receiving his new set of instructions he wondered about what the other infiltrators were going to be doing during the ensuing blackout.

Each nuclear power plant had multiple reactors and produced roughly 2000 MW. They powered all of the Geo-Front and the surface city, and supplied the power for the Evangelions during battle. They were the largest plants in the world, and each had numerous redundant systems and linkages to the power grids.

Each had its own security force, subsections of Section 2, who maintained their own patrols and sensor nets. While still ultimately controlled by the MAGI, it meant that he had three different networks of security to evade and overcome. This, plus the fact that each was deep underground, nestled into the bedrock, meant that sneaking around was extremely difficult. The access shafts to conduct maintenance were hardened systems in their own right.

It was obvious that they had picked the hardest job for their best spy. High, if still annoying, praise.

He turned the corner, and sighed, checking the blueprints again. This hallway ended with just a singular door, set into the far wall. Yet another discrepancy from the on-file plans.

The door's electronic lock was easily circumvented, which was odd, as all the other doors down on this level had much more stringent security, but that puzzle was overshadowed by what lay beyond.

The door opened onto a walkway that ran along a massive access shaft, one clearly meant for an Evangelion to have ample room to move about in. He could not see the far end, being shrouded in darkness, but he could see a vast door almost a quarter mile away from where he stood, all reinforced armor and bristling with gun turrets, and all of them facing down the hall. The fig leaf logo was painted onto the gray metal, bright red carnelian standing out in the bright spotlights trained on the door, and above it, picked out in a deep azure, was a triangle with seven eyes in two columns, one with three and one with four. It wasn't anything that he had ever seen before. Whatever it was that it meant, Gendo did not want anyone to have an easy time getting to, or past, that gate.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei tasted the soup she was working on, more critical now than she had ever been. While she strived for excellence in everything that mattered, this was the test run for tomorrow night's dinner. Everything had to be perfect, even if the recipe was going to be a little different. She handed the small dish over to Hikari for her assessment.

"It's fine, Rei! You're stressing out over this way too much." She filled the dish back up and handed it to Nozomi, who had spent the afternoon 'helping' the older girls, although it was more of getting in the way and irregularly chopping vegetables. "I mean, you've made this how many times now?"

"We have made this particular dish forty five times since I have moved in with your family." She accepted the bowl back from the younger girl and set it into the sink. "It will be acceptable for the dinner."

"Right, so that's taken care of." Hikari laughed. "Everything will be fine, I promise!"

Rei looked skeptically at her friend as she cleaned up the counter. "And everyone was agreeable to letting us make use of the house, uninterrupted, for the duration?"

"I'll take Nozomi to the movies with Toji and Mari, and we'll eat at a restaurant. Dad's going to be going out with some friends from work, and Kodama will be off with her boyfriend." She said, counting off items on her hand. "You will be coming right back here after school, and Shinji will be here at three thirty. The Commander is supposed to be here at four."

Rei nodded, having memorized the agreed-upon schedule for the following day. "I will be alone for two hours after school is released, for the preparation of the dinner and setting of the table. I will have thirty minutes alone with Shinji to set up the centerpiece, which Asuka informs me will be quite acceptable. That will take approximately five minutes, which will allow us twenty minutes of unsupervised free time, allowing for five minutes to straighten up for the arrival of Commander Ikari." Rei paused, curiously watching Hikari blush as she covered Nozomi's ears. "Dinner will be from four until six, at which point Commander Ikari will depart, and Shinji and I will clean up."

Hikari nodded vigorously." We'll be getting back soon after that. So, unless an Angel attacks, everything will be fine. I don't see what else could happen that would throw things off."

"An Angel attack would be unfortunate. However, all sensor nets currently report none of the anomalous readings that have in the past heralded the Angels." She paused as she set the cooking pot to one side. "Those readings are not always pertinent though. Sometimes they have appeared without warning."

An Angel attack would be very unfortunate, especially since the Commander would be more or less incapacitated. While he would be able to perform the duties his position demanded, he would not be his normal self.

It was a risk that she was taking, but a calculated one. Commander Ikari rarely needed to assume direct command during the battles, as Major Katsuragi was very proficient at commanding them in combat. Shinji, of course, would be restored to his usual self shortly after immersion in the LCL and synchronization. The purging effects of the liquid merited studies all on their own, but she had no time to conduct them, and very few test subjects to use.

"I'm sure that everything will be fine." Hikari reassured her friend. "It's been awhile since the last incident, and there's no reason to think that there will be one tomorrow, just because you're having a family dinner with the Ikaris!"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kaworu chuckled to himself as he watched the two Evangelion pilots. His sister was not present, and so he had no need to hide himself from her view. The two Lilim would not be able to sense him the way she would.

The girl, the 'captain' of the coterie of pilots, was trying to explain to Shinji about flowers and how to select them for different events. The boy was lost, caught up in the hurricane of his captain's exuberance. While annoying, it did make it easier for him to move in and make Shinji's acquaintance. All he needed to do was wait for her to go and inspect something else and leave him alone for a moment.

He did not have to wait long, as she became embroiled in an argument with the clerk. Shinji rolled his eyes and wandered off, looking at the displays of flowers and other sundry gifts.

Kaworu smoothly and quietly moved up alongside the other boy, pretending to look at the flowers. "Your girlfriend has quite the temper." He commented dryly, nodding over at the counter.

Shinji jerked suddenly, not expecting to be addressed, but he quickly laughed. "Oh, she's not my girlfriend. Just a friend."

"Just a friend? You must be a very easygoing person, to put up with a temper like hers."

"Oh, she's not usually like this." Shinji explained, "She's just very energetic about her opinions."

"That's one way of looking at it." Kaworu smiled as he held out his hand. "I'm Kaworu Nagisa, by the way."

"Shinji Ikari." Shinji shook his hand. "That's Asuka Soryu." He motioned over at the redhead. "We go to the Tokyo-3 high school, class three. Are you a student there? I don't think I've ever seen you before."

"Oh, I'm not from here." Kaworu explained. "I'm just visiting. I'll be moving here in a few months, and thought I'd take the time to check the city out, see the sights, that sort of thing." His smile deepened. "Meet new people, make some friends."

"It can be hard starting out someplace new without knowing anyone." Shinji commented. "Does your father work for NERV? We don't get many new people here in the city who don't work at NERV in some way or another."

"Yes, he works for NERV. I'm not too sure what it is that he does, but we're moving over from the German Branch, from Berlin. I take it that you have a family member who works at NERV as well?"

Shinji frowned for briefly before answering. "Yes, my father works at NERV. He's usually very busy with work, and I don't see him very often."

"It's the same with me, I assure you." Kaworu replied, his tone breezy. "Well, it was very nice meeting you, Shinji. I have a prior engagement to keep, but are you free this Friday? You seem like you know the area, would you mind showing me around? I'm sure you know all the best places."

"Well, I'm not free this Friday. I'm having dinner with my girlfriend and my father." Shinji said, "But I think Saturday afternoon I have off. We can show you around."

"We?" Kaworu asked, unhappiness creeping in around the edges of his voice.

"Asuka, Rei, and some of our friends."

"I'm sure that it will be fun. I'll see you later, Shinji!" Kaworu turned and left before the other boy could ask when and where they would meet up, leaving him slightly flabbergasted.

Asuka walked over to her friend, a catalog in her hands. "Who's that?" she asked, nodding at Kaworu's back.

"Kaworu Nagisa. I guess he's moving over from Berlin in a few months, and is here seeing Tokyo-3."

"Really…" she said, drawing out the word, her eyes narrowed. "I don't remember any Nagisas while I was there."

"Maybe his dad's in a different department. Could be Section-2 or Section-1." Shinji shrugged. "Not everything revolves around the Evangelions."

"I know that, dummy! But Berlin and Tokyo-3 are Evangelion centric. Especially Berlin. All the other research departments were out of Munich or Ramstein." She tossed her head, flipping her hair back. "I'm pretty sure that I would have noticed." She snorted. "Besides, he's not even German! Nagisa. Hah, what a joke! Anyways," she paused, opening up the catalog, "You're going to be getting a vase of tulips for tomorrow night. They look nice, and since it's not a romantic dinner, what with Commander Creepy, you won't be needing roses."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Hikari waved goodbye to Rei as she hustled Nozomi down the walkway. "Bye Rei! We'll see you later!"

Rei waved in response before walking back into the house, pulling the small vial of anti-depressants out of her pocket. It had taken her a half hour to grind the pills into a fine powder, and it should dissolve nicely into the miso soup. Ten minutes into the meal, both Shinji and the Commander would be having the happiest dinner in their lives.

She smiled to herself, humming to herself the song that Shinji was constantly humming to himself. This was going to be a glorious day for Science.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato stabbed the button to close the elevator doors, trying to evade Kaji's desperate attempt to catch a ride. He slid into the lift just as the doors closed.

"Whew, that was close!" he cheerfully commented. "So, beautiful, how are you doing today?"

Misato sighed loudly. "I was having a good day before you showed up."

Kaji looked hurt, pointing to himself. "What? What's wrong, dollface?"

"I've got work to do, and it never seems to get done while you're around."

He grinned impishly at her. "You don't have to worry about me seducing you today," he said with a wink, "I'm a man on a mission. I've got a laundry list of things to do today myself." He held up his hand as if taking an oath. "I promise."

Misato's sigh became a groan after the lights went out and the elevator shuddered to a halt.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji and Asuka were arguing as they walked back home from the mall, the boy's hands full of flowers, the girl's empty and swinging from side to side, occasionally poking the taller boy.

"I'm just saying that the data says you're doing something else! There's no way that you can be that much better at AT Field manipulation than me or Wondergirl!"

"I really don't know what else to say, Asuka."

"Whatever." Her frown deepened into a scowl as they passed a restaurant. "You could at least cook something before heading out for your dinner date. Misato can't cook anything right!"

"You could cook." Shinji replied, shaking his head. "It's not that hard, and I know that you can! You've bragged about how you are perfectly capable of taking care of yourself!"

She grumbled under her breath as they rounded the corner. "GOTT IM HIMMEL!" She screamed in anger and surprise as Shinji dropped the vase of flowers, the glass shattering on the ground. Far off in the distance, a giant spidery form moved slowly towards the city. Above it, a single plane circled overhead, watching its progress.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Gendo looked up from the report cards from the pilots, and the reports from Major Katsuragi detailing their progress at school, as the lights in the office flickered and then died, leaving him in total darkness.

Grinning to himself, he set the report down on the desk and leaned back in his chair. His hands shot up and grabbed the would-be assassin by the shoulders and slammed the bottom of the man's chin into his chair. Rolling out of the chair, he kept one hand on the man, slamming the other into his stomach as he kicked the garrote away into the dark.

The assassin fought back, but he was no match for the Commander, not without the element of surprise and certainly not with the breath knocked out of him. The fight was over almost as soon as it was started. After stuffing the unconscious man into his closet and locking it, he changed into a fresh set of clothes. It would not do to show up with another man's blood on him.

He nodded at Fuyutsuki as Section-2 men pried open the door to his office. "It seems like the time for subtle moves is over." He commented to his second in command while forcing one agents who was dragging the unconscious assailant away to maneuver around him. "We must ensure that the Evangelions are prepared for deployment. Get the emergency diesel generators into position. We'll prep everything manually." He shoved his hands into his pockets as the group hurried down the hallway. "Have someone locate the Major and Doctor Akagi. Send someone to try to find the pilots – they will be on the surface. If an Angel attacks while the power is out, it will be disastrous."

"I've started most of that. Doctor Akagi has her crews working. Maintenance is working on the power issue. Evangelion crews 00-02 are starting to prepare the Evangelions." He looked at his protégé. "It's ahead of schedule, but nothing that we hadn't planned for. How does it feel, being constantly vindicated?"

In the gloom, Gendo grinned again.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka growled in irritation as they hurried through the air ducts. "This is garbage! How come the power all over the Geo-Front and the city is out? We've got, what, three nuclear reactors powering this place?"

"There are three power plants, each with five reactors that provide power to the Geo-Front and Tokyo-3." Rei corrected from the front. "It is highly unusual that all three would be offline at the same time."

"What does that mean, then?" Shinji asked. "Did someone sabotage NERV? Who would do something like that?"

"I don't know." Asuka growled back through gritted teeth. "But if I ever find out who, I'm going to kill them! An Angel is attacking, and we have to crawl through these stupid air ducts again just to get to our Evangelions!"

"I suppose that it's a good thing that we've done this before. Otherwise, we'd probably be lost right now."

"I still wish that we could have waited for the guards to get one of the lifts running." Asuka complained. "I am not dressed for this."

"Time is a luxury we do not possess." Rei commented. "We should be able to exit here."

"Okay, Shinji. You're up."

Shinji crawled over the prone form of his girlfriend, who then moved back to give him room to wrench open the grate. He jumped down into the corridor, and turned around to help the girls down. They started to run down the hallway towards the cages, not bothering to brush the dust off themselves.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Ritsuko sighed to herself as the Geo-Front shook violently as the three Evangelions climbed up through the launch tunnels, punching and kicking hand and footholds into the walls, fighting against the time limits imposed on them by the backup diesel generators. They would only be able to provide electricity for a limited time before running dry, and the umbilical cables were going to be useless once they hit the surface, being not long enough to reach even on the most direct route. Then they would have to deal with the Angel before the five minutes of on board battery power ran out.

"I can hardly wait for the damage assessments." She said with a shake of her head. "Well, let's go see what we can do to get power restored.

"Do you think we'll be able to get power restored in time?" Maya asked, trailing after the doctor. "If all three plants are offline,"

"It means that someone wanted them to be." Ritsuko finished the thought. "It's not likely that we'll have power back up in time to be of any help in the fight, but the sooner we get it fixed, the better. It's annoying, though, not being able to help out or keep track of what's happening. We won't know what happens until after it's all said and done."

Her dark mood was brightened by the younger technician's next words. "But we've got a good chance, though. The pilots were ready and on the way, and we got the Evangelions ready for them! It's pretty amazing, the Commander leading the charge to get everything set up in preparation for them."

Ritsuko chuckled. "I guess that it's not all that bad. He was pretty impressive, wasn't he?" She shook her head. "Even Shinji was impressed. I don't think that he's ever really seen his father in action."

"Ma'am?" Maya asked, a little confused.

"Well, it's not like he's ever really had time for it. Plus, he didn't really have the warmest of reunions." The blond shook her head again, before lengthening her stride. "Well, enough of that. We've got work to do."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kaji and Misato looked up at the ceiling as the lift shook, screams of tortured metal echoing around in the subterranean base. "What's going on, I wonder?" Kaji asked lightly, casting a look at the woman.

"The Evangelions are moving out." Misato replied, worry in her voice. "They're climbing up one of the launch tubes."

"Do you think that there's an Angel approaching?"

She turned to stare at him. "It's not like they'll be of much use against anything else, now, would they?"

He frowned at her, disappointed. "You don't really believe that, do you? Misato, have you even looked at these things? They could take on entire armies and win!"

"Have you seen the things that they fight? They have to take on things that do take on entire armies and win."

"But what about when there are no more Angels? What happens then?"

She smiled wolfishly at him. "Then we've won."

"And Ikari has a group of unstoppable weapons, with pilots loyal to him. What's to stop him from taking over the world?"

"Are you being serious?" She asked, crossing her arms and scooting backwards to sit against a wall across from him. "You've seen the oversight reports. The UN has us on such a short leash, and-"

"Misato, I can't believe you! The oversight reports go nowhere! The committees that watch NERV are all owned by NERV! The Marduk Institute – it's nothing but shell companies, Misato. NERV selects its pilots based on its own advice and counsel."

She eyed him suspiciously. "What have you been up too, Kaji? Where have you been snooping?"

"Where does your loyalty go, Misato? The UN? NERV?"

She leapt across the elevator, slapping him. "My loyalty is to the pilots. My loyalty," she hissed, "is to the world."

"Do you know how far this rabbit hole goes? How far down it have you fallen?" he asked, a little sadly.

"I've seen the Truth, Kaji. I saw what waits at Third Impact. The Angels must be stopped." She glared at her lover. "You're playing a dangerous game Kaji. NERV might be a little dirty, but it's all that stands between Mankind and extinction. You can't mess around here like you did in Africa. There's only one side to be on."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji flexed his hand, opening and closing it, trying to ignore the sympathetic pain from the acid that had eaten into the hand of Unit-01. He leaned back against the seat, staring at the frozen numbers of his internal battery. He keyed the radio.

"I don't think that the acid is going to let up any time soon." He said, watching the acid slowly flowing down the sides of the tunnel. "What are we going to do?"

"We have limited resources. We have limited time. A full out frontal assault is not likely to be successful. We are still several hundred meters short of the surface."

"So we've got what, about three minutes of life apiece, our prog knives, my spike thrower, my brains, Wondergirl's brains, and Shinji's brawn."

Shinji ignored Asuka. "Does this tube lead to another vertical shaft?"

"No, it does not. We will have to backtrack for at least a minute before being able to proceed again. It will not work in the time we have left." Rei answered after a moment's thought. "Two of us could cut a path through the rest of the vertical distance, although I do not know how capable the structure would be in supporting the weight of the Evangelion left to battle the Angel."

"It's an idea, at least." Asuka sighed, and Shinji could imagine her hitting the control yoke in front of her in frustration. "This is stupid!"

"We need a shield." Shinji said, thinking out loud. "Could we use one of the blast doors to block the acid and cover our approach? It's not that far, for an Evangelion."

"One of us could be a shield. We just need to get out of the tunnel." Asuka offered. "One to block, two to attack."

"If Pilot Ikari can form his AT Field, he could be the shield." Rei said. "He has the most skill in AT Field manipulation."

"Not even the wonderful Shinji can form an AT Field large enough to use as a shield with only three minutes of emergency power." Asuka snapped back.

The three pilots sat in silence, watching the acid slowly eat away at the concrete and steel.

"I wonder how much is pooled up down at the bottom." Shinji said. "When is it going to try to come down the tunnel? Why is it still waiting?"

"It's waiting for us, dummy! I hate waiting here, useless! We need to do something before it starts another Impact."

"It seems that a frontal assault is all that we can do. Waiting is not an option."

"Right." Asuka's voice cut through the air like a blade. "I'll give Shinji my knife. I'll be the shield. I'll swing up and out first. Wondergirl – you jam yourself in the shaft, and get ready to give Third here a boost. Shinji, you're going to jump off of Rei and me, and then you're going to tackle this beschissene Arschloch right in the fucking face. We'll climb up the rest of the way and help you kick this thing's head in if you need help," she said, her voice getting dark and angry, "which you had better not need, Mister 'rip-and-tear'."

"He is not the one who showered in the blood of an Angel, Pilot Soryu."

"Have you watched his fight videos? Have you paid any attention to him in the sims?"

"Can we just concentrate on saving the world already?" Shinji asked, his voice strained. "It's as good a plan as we'll be able to come up with. Let's get on with it, already."

The pilots engaged their power systems again, Asuka quickly passing her knife to Shinji. "Here we go." She said irritably, swinging out, bracing herself against the walls of the shaft. Above them the Angel screeched at her, and the formerly slow-moving acid began flowing faster. She grit her teeth and hissed under her breath as the caustic liquid splashed over the Evangelion.

Rei scrambled out right behind the red titan, holding her hands out to give Unit-01 a boost. He wasted no time, and flung himself up at their enemy, one progressive blade cutting into the Angel, the other catching the wall. Pushing off the blade, he slammed the wounded and wailing spider-thing aside, cutting it open and searching for the core.

The Angel had none of the bulk its predecessors had, and the red orb sat near the top of the back segment of its body. The Angel was fast and nimble, and it tried to maneuver to bring its vicious fanged maw on the Evangelion trying to fillet it.

Shinji was having none of that, however, ripping off one of the Angel's legs, sending it staggering off oozing more acid, melting a path through the buildings and streets. It spun around, and lodged a fang in his arm, and he howled in pain, stabbing wildly at the core.

The Angel died with little fanfare, no towering explosion of light and fire, instead going limp against Unit-01, before it began to dissolve, giving in to liquid putrefaction as entropy reclaimed it. Shinji sat down, leaning against a building as his battery ran down. He relaxed in the darkness as synchronization was cut, the pain in his arm fading into a dull throb, the memory of an old hurt, rather than the sharp sting of a new wound.

Hoping the girls were fine, he settled in to take a nap. It was probably going to be a while before anyone came to get him.

It was, in fact, five hours and thirty three minutes before his Evangelion returned to life, and he gasped as synchronization returned like a spike of ice thrust into his brain. The override code flashed across his eyes as the MAGI took control, and he felt his expanded consciousness disappear as the plug began to eject.

Floodlights illuminated the night sky as helping hands reached out for him. He accepted the aid, and scrambled out of the plug. Unit-01 had been partially recovered, and was stretched out on a transit bed, strapped in. He weakly waved at the others, already recovered and waiting for him.

"How was it?" He asked in-between coughing spasms. He wiped LCL and snot from his face. "Everyone okay?"

"Unit-01," Asuka said imperiously, "is a lard ass. You are like a ton of bricks! You sent me falling down the tube! If it weren't for Rei and Unit-00, I'd have fallen all the way down into that pool of acid! Which, by the way, is almost thirty feet deep!"

"You are the Captain. I will not let you fall." Rei answered.

Asuka shook her head. "At least it's all over now. Only minor injuries, some light scarring." She held up her hands, the fingers red and a little puffy. "They've got a lot of work to do here, so they're cutting us loose for the night." She looked a little apologetic at them, shaking her head. "It's too bad about the whole dinner thing, but there's no use in crying over spilt milk. Let's go get something to eat. NERV's paying."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"Major Misato Katsuragi, this panel feels that your performance as the Tactical Liaison Officer to NERV, while commendable, is subversive and not in line with the organization's intent. Furthermore, for reasons already gone over in course of this investigation and inquiry, such as the continued use of underage pilots, questionable tactics, and willful negligence, you will be court-martialed and stripped of rank, as well as being dishonorably discharged from the UN Army." The woman paused, looking up at the shell-shocked major. "This body is lenient, however, and you will not be prosecuted for war crimes, nor will you be imprisoned."

Misato would have cried, and she wanted to cry as she stood there, but she had no tears left. She shook slightly as she stood there, listening to the rest of the woman's speech, a ball of ice slowly sinking in her stomach.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei looked up from the table in the food court, the sense of unease now stronger than ever. Eyes tracking and searching, her gaze settled in on a single boy, leaning against a railing several floors above them, watching her. Two pairs of crimson eyes locked, and he smiled at her even as she frowned slightly. He waved, and then disappeared.

Turning back to the conversation, she nodded at Shinji's comment and resumed eating, listening with one ear while starting to plan. She knew now why she had been feeling uneasy, and she suspected how the sabotage had occurred.

On one hand, she was furious. On the other, she was pleased. Dealing with the interloper would be a gift for the Commander, but not just yet. She needed to figure out how to deal with him, and to find out what he knew, and why he had sabotaged NERV.

If he was here, it meant that SEELE was moving in for the kill, to betray NERV and begin Instrumentality.

Her brother could not be allowed to live.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kaji sat in the darkness of his apartment, bitterness and bile in his mouth as he watched the news, flipping through the channels.

"_**Four member nations of NATO have elected to freeze NERV assets in the wake of the-"**_

Static filled the screen as he changed the channel, having heard enough from that particular reporter.

"_Your organization is part of the UN, and must abide by its edicts!" The board member was furious, almost shouting at the impassive form of Commander Ikari._

"_You are incorrect. NERV, like its predecessor, GEHIRN, is a private research and development organization. We are a for profit company, not part of any government. Our services are rented by various organizations, such as the UN, and we deal with events and things that they are not capable of. Our systems are currently all prototypes, and are, for technical reasons, capable of being used by a small, elite group of individuals. Some nations have offered to purchase the systems, even in their test bed state, but the cost of each unit is currently too high."_

"_That was so-called "Commander Ikari", the owner of the multinational R&D giant NERV, refuting the rulings of the United Nations-"_

Kaji turned the television off, tired of watching. Things were heating up all over the place, and he had received a rather nasty note from his SEELE handler, demanding to know why he had sabotaged the power plants. The note was threatening, and he had suspicions that the boy was not all that he seemed.

The problem was now that he could hardly turn to Ikari for sanctuary from SEELE. This was not something that he would forgive. The man had to be a raging volcano of emotion right now, no matter how glacier-like his exterior was.

Plus, if Misato ever found out, she would kill him. Ikari might be able to protect him from SEELE, but against the Operations Director he would be useless.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato looked up from the bed in the hotel room she was staying in with Ritsuko as someone knocked on the door. Ritsuko sighed and got up, checking the peep hole. "It's the Commander." She said, unlocking the door.

Misato sat up as the man walked in, moving to lean against the wall, hands in his pockets, his face still and calm. Ritsuko closed and locked the door, and sat back down.

"You have been dismissed by the UN. You are longer an officer of the United Nations, and they have revoked your security clearances. As a civilian, you are not suitable to share a room with the research director of NERV." He spoke without preamble. "You are currently unemployed. I am offering you a job, and the title of Sub-Commander. You are a valuable, capable woman, and I do not wish to lose your services. They owe you more than an apology, but if it ever comes, it will be a long time."

Misato stared, open-mouthed at the man.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

NERV was in a time of upheaval as the UN recalled funding and liaison officers. Doctor Akagi had been engrossed in checking over the repairs to the Evangelions, the Commander had been locked away in his office, not seeing anyone except for the Sub-Commanders.

Rei had been very busy, even as all current training and regular tests had been put on hold as NERV realigned personnel rosters and filled in the gaps left by the recalled men and women. It had taken much deliberation and discussion with the MAGI, but the sacrifice she was making was small compared to the payoff. In the long run it wouldn't really matter, and in the short term, well, she could always replace what she was losing.

The trap was set and baited, and all she needed was for her brother to bite. If he was anything at all like he used to be, he wouldn't be able to keep from gloating about his supposed superiority. If she was lucky, he would also brag about his sabotage efforts. Knowing how he did it and why he did it would be useful. She could not let SEELE's plans come to pass.

Nagisa took the bait, sliding in after her into an elevator deep inside the Geo-Front. She ignored him, staring at the mirrored doors, knowing that he could stand the silence even less than Asuka could.

"You're a hard person to track down, you know. I'd say that you were avoiding me." His reflection grinned at her, his smug demeanor getting on her nerves more than she remembered it doing the last time he had been around, when one of the SEELE directors had brought him along to show off to the Commander. "I'm hurt, you know. I hear that you've been making friends, and learning to talk, and here you are, avoiding your own brother! I'm hurt."

"I have no desire to make small talk with you." She replied, still a near perfect replica of the Commander, calm and in control of the situation.

"Shinji wants to make small talk with me." He shot back, still grinning. "Well, we'll be hanging out later, anyways." His grin became a leer as her eye twitched slightly. "I do like your taste, but he was always meant to be mine, sister."

"He is not yours."

"But he will be. He will be mine, and we will complete each other. Can't you see his broken little soul, cowering inside of him? Hurt and wounded by his father and time, alone and lost in this cold, cruel world. It will be very pleasurable, healing him, making him my own."

"Perhaps your ears are faulty. I said that he is not yours."

"Oh? And what will you do with him, older sister? The light of my soul is music and love. We were made for each other! Do you not hear the music of his soul? DO you not hear him? What could you do with him?"

"You are flustered." Rei commented, reaching out and hitting the button to stop the elevator. "Are you feeling guilty over your stunt, putting him in danger?"

"My stunt? Oh, you silly little thing. He was in no danger as long as I was there. But you, he is in much more danger from you than from anything else. Your voice is Rage and Ruin. You are imperfect, an incomplete Human, an incomplete Angel. I am the real thing." He paused, studying the back of her head. "Do you want to hear why I think that it's always you who initiates contact with him? Why it's him who does not trail his hand across your back?"

"I am not interested in what you think."

"For all of our differences, we're still the same you know," he sighed, shaking his head. "There's no reason for us to fight right now. I don't want to fight my family. But I want you to stay away from him."

"If we are the same," Rei answered, turning around to face him, "then you should have brought more of you."

Kaworu had only a moment to look confused before the ceiling of the elevator collapsed, and a tide of blue haired clones crushing in through the hole in the ceiling.

Rei watched dispassionately as her nude clones beat the gray haired boy into unconsciousness. He fought back, pulping several of them into LCL with his AT Field, capable of manifesting one due to the higher percentage of Angelic heritage he possessed, but he was still no match for Rei's drones. He succumbed finally as one of them beat his face into the floor, the crunch of bone filling the otherwise silent elevator.

Pulling out her cell phone, she sent a text message to the MAGI.

_Please open gates four through sixteen. I will deal with him at the apartment. Your masking of his Pattern Blue readings and his AT Field is appreciated._

The lights in the elevator flashed on and off, the MAGI signaling their acknowledgment. The elevator began to rise faster, headed for the secured lift tube that would deliver her to the old apartment, now empty save for her laboratory. Her clones stood waiting against the walls, and would return to the tank once she was finished with them.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kaworu awoke with a start, the last traces of headache dissipating quickly. He chuckled softly as he took in his surroundings. He was bound with chains to a large metal table, in a dilapidated apartment. Shelves lined the walls, full of metal and glass instruments, collection jars and flasks. He could hear running water in the background, and the hum of electricity.

The water shut off, and shortly afterwards Rei came into view, walking around the table. She was wearing a much used lab coat, drying her hands with a towel. He grinned at her. "That was a neat trick, Rei."

She ignored him as she walked around the room, checking things and making a few notations into the book she pulled from her pocket. He followed her with his eyes, trying to make sense of what she was doing. There had been nothing of this in the files on her back in Berlin. The photographs of her apartment had shown a messy and empty existence, devoid of life.

"You can't hope to keep me here forever, you know." He mocked her, still smiling his ever present smile. "I'll be missed, and SEELE will come looking for me." He paused, and when it became obvious that she was still not paying attention to him, he continued. "I like the scientist look, though. The style suits, I think."

Rei shut the book with a snap, and slipped it back into her coat's pocket. She walked out of the captive boy's view, but returned almost immediately with a cooler, biohazard stickers plastered on the sides.

"Are you going on a picnic?" He called after her as she went to one of the several refrigerators. "How quaint." He craned his neck, trying to see what she was getting. He quirked an eyebrow as she began to remove petri dishes and vials of blood and pack them into the cooler, which steamed with condensing dry ice vapor. "So it's not a picnic you're planning on, unless you've taken up some _kinky_ habits."

To his growing irritation, she continued to ignore him, and it showed, even though he kept the same easy, friendly tone and the smile never slipped from his face. She finished her chore, and closed the cooler and walked off again.

"You're going to have to answer me sometime, little sister." A door opened and closed, but he could hear her light footsteps still moving about. When she returned, she was wearing a pair of welder's goggles, messy blue hair spilling out over the top, and had a large backpack contraption on, all metal and tubing. For the first time, her concentration seemed to be on him, although it was hard to tell through the dark lenses.

"I didn't want to have to do this, at least not right now," he warned her, still smiling, "but it seems that you're going to be unreasonable about things." His smiled widened, stretching nearly across the entirety of his face, far wider than any human's mouth should have been capable of, and he continued in a voice like an orchestra. "I AM the Angel of the Morning, the Ninth Hour, of Choice and Free Will. In the ninth hour I have come, and will deliver the Message. I AM Love and Light, and I AM the Way to Instrumentality. I AM Tabris, Angel and Son of ADAM."

Rei coolly regarded him for a moment as he paused to gauge her reaction. "I am Rei Ayanami," she said quietly, her voice no different than usual, "and your message is invalid. I have a flamethrower."

Tabris had time only for a single, startled cry of confusion as Rei lifted the nozzle of the flamethrower and sent a wash of fire over the captive Angel. His AT Field flashed into view as he rose up from the table, breaking his restraints with ease, but Unit-00 was waiting for the flare of energy, and crushed it with a thought, it's own AT Field traveling along the make-shift emitter chain that Rei had cobbled together from spare parts over the week, aided by the MAGI who sent erroneous work orders to the maintenance and technical teams, who rewired and installed necessary components piecemeal along the path from the cage to the girl's apartment lab. The final crucial linkages had been finished this morning by the girl.

He went down almost immediately afterwards, the rush of flame too much for him. Rei kept the spray of liquid fire on him for several minutes after he stopped thrashing, ignoring the swath of flames that was spreading around the lab. Finally satisfied, she unbuckled the weapon and dropped it to the ground, and walked over to the large switch on the wall next to her, and engaged the fire suppression systems.

Ignoring the halon that was flooding the room and extinguishing the flames, she walked through the boy's ashes and picked up the grapefruit sized orb. The core was cool to the touch, and the ashes stuck to it, attracted by the static electricity it exuded. She waved it around in the air experimentally, listening to the hum of energy. An intact, miniaturized S2 Organ! Part of her was tempted to keep it and study it, to try to wrest the secrets of the unlimited energy core from it, but she knew that she had to destroy it. It was far too dangerous to keep.

She left the lab and walked back into her old room, now home to her particle accelerator. She had disassembled it and moved it over from the lab, not wanting to risk damaging it with her attack on Tabris with the flamethrower. She carefully placed the humming orb into a socket near the bottom of the towering machine, and then typed in a few commands into the control terminal.

With a final glance around the room that had been her home for years, she threw the last switch, and walked over to the door where her cooler with blood and tissue samples from Shinji and herself waited. Closing the door behind her, she marched down the hallway, still wearing her goggles and lab-coat, and entered the elevator. Pushing the button that would send her down into the Geo-Front, she allowed herself a small, satisfied smile, watching her reflection in the door.

Back in the room, the machine hummed as it fired a small collection of hydrogen anions through the accelerator. The dark room was light only by the soft red glow of the orb, which vibrated slightly in the padded socket it was nestled in, right at the end of the aperture of the coil accelerator. The sub-atomic particles sped downwards in the coils, racing faster and faster, receiving regular boosts of radiation, nearing the speed of light as they burned a path towards the waiting core.

There was a momentarily flash of blue light as the air ionized in the wake of the particles as they slammed into the glowing orb. The initial reaction was unimpressive, a tiny chip of red flaking off, a hairline crack running across the sphere. Half a second later, the resulting explosion was much more impressive, the pillar of light and fire consuming the apartment building and the buildings next to it.

Rei's elevator was almost halfway down to the Geo-Front when the lift shuddered violently, shaking as Tabris' core detonated. She looked up at the ceiling, her smile turning into a savage grin.

"We are not the same, Tabris," she said in the silence of the lift. "We are not the same," she repeated to herself, "and Shinji is not yours." Behind the dark lenses, her eyes began to glow with red light. "Shinji is mine."

As she traveled down to her new lab, she could hear the laughter of Unit-00, her older sister cackling madly in their minds.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Gendo finished reading the reports from the latest debacle. The MAGI had no explanation for the detonation that had consumed the block of buildings centered on Rei's old apartment. Rei herself wasn't involved at least, having been in class at the time. He looked up to the waiting faces of his Sub-Commanders, sitting in the two chairs set aside for them. Katsuragi looked pale, still recovering from the shock of being discharged from the army and subsequently being hired on as a sub-commander, and then from the shock of exposure to Lilith, the Second Angel. She had known, of course, that there was a secret thing that attracted the Angels that NERV used to draw them to Tokyo-3 and the Evangelions, but she hadn't known what it was. She had taken the news badly.

She had taken the news of SEELE's existence and their conspiracy even worse. He did not think that she was ready for the rest of it, for the truth behind the Evangelions. It would come, in time, perhaps, if needed.

"SEELE's hand was forced. This entire affair was badly done, the work of an amateur. They gained nothing by the public inquiry into our affairs, and they were not expecting it at all, otherwise they would have been quicker to squash it. The old men are furious, and in an uproar. They wanted to know what we were doing, orchestrating such an affair."

"As if we stood to gain anything by more public scrutiny into our affairs." Fuyutsuki sniffed. "Ridiculous. We were badly compromised by the power outage – Dr. Akagi thinks that the primary aim was to map out our power grid, to isolate key nodes and sections, based on the return of electricity to the Geo-Front."

"It would be very useful to anyone who was going to invade the Geo-Front and NERV." Misato offered. "They could use it to identify central locations where command and control could fort up to direct the fight."

"There are no other players in this battle of wills. It is us, and SEELE. There may be a power struggle of some sort happening, dissension in their ranks." Gendo mused, tenting his fingers and leaning back in his chair. "Kiel will not allow such infighting to continue for long. I doubt that we will be able to capitalize on the situation. We will have to be vigilant. Kiel knows that we plan sedition, but he thinks our aims mirror his."

"The cold war is heating up. Open fighting, I fear, may arrive before the last of the Angels." Fuyutsuki remarked, looking at the others. "The Pilots may be called to war against the forces of man as well as the Angels."

"I have full confidence in the Pilots." Misato said firmly. "They can handle anything anyone can throw at them. Asuka and Rei won't have a problem fighting. Shinji might, but I don't think that it'll be an issue for long if they're shooting at Rei."

Gendo stood up from his seat and walked over to the window, gloved hands clasped behind his back. "I have adjusted the Scenario. If anyone decides to play games with NERV, then they shall see that we play hard, and that we don't play nice. Let the armies of the world come against us, to dash themselves against this fortress city. I have molded the Children into Colossuses, and they shall trample our foes to dust beneath them. They are Titans, who stand towering over the cities of Men, protecting them against all who would seek our destruction." He smiled into the window, watching the sheltered wilderness of the forest park. "If I must, I will rebuild the world from this seed, this Eden, out of the ashes of the old. If the winds of war must blow in our direction, we will not be found unready or wanting."

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the long delay, I've been a mite busier than usual. Unfortunately, I cannot promise a timeline on when you may expect the next chapter, but hopefully it will be much shorter than this wait was. If you're terribly interested in the cause for the wait, please refer to my profile.

Also, The computers that I get to load this up on are garbage! Please bear with me as I try to keep things straight.

SO MUCH STUFF is happening.

Next Chapter:

Asuka's getting closer to the truth behind the Evangelions! She has a fight with Kaji! She has a fight with Shinji! She has fights!

Maya and Ritsuko – an item?

Shinji keeps improving with the Evangelion Unit-01, but will it be enough to save the day when Angels from calling from the sky?

Misato begins to train the pilots to take on entire armies!

The Lance of Longinus is located! Gendo takes another trip, and is away from Tokyo-3, leaving it in the hands of Misato. How will NERV's newest Sub-Commander handle the power and authority?

More SCIENCE! More Fan-Service!

(Rei gropes Shinji's butt! Shinji gropes Rei's breasts!)

(Neither of those were accidents! Both were willing participants!)


	31. Chapter 31

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

German translations and Proof-reading by Judicar Demios!

Author's Notes at the end of the chapter.

Shinji stared out at the virtual world, a war-torn battlefield waiting for him and Unit-01 to explore and defend. Tokyo-3 and its environs had been transformed into a blasted, smoking ruin for the newest batch of training simulations dreamed up by Misato and Doctor Akagi. Despite the fact that it was all part of the exercise, and that he was immersed in LCL, his nostrils flared as he breathed, and he thought that he could smell the burning city. He shivered in the training plug, tingles running up and down his spine. Still scanning the horizon for the Angel, he opened a line back to the Pribnow Box.

"Umm, you said that this was going to be part of a new batch of exercises, right?" He asked as he moved through the city, rifle at the ready, scanning for threats. "Am I missing something? It's not another invisible one, is it?"

"It's not an invisible Angel, Shinji." Lieutenant Ibuki's voice came back to him, the visual cue that popped up in the lower corner of his eye displaying her smiling picture from the on-file security photo. "If you remember from the briefing, we're trying out a new possible form of Angel, and not simply practicing against ones we've already seen."

"Yeah, but you didn't say what I'd be fighting! And we haven't seen invisible ones before, either." He complained, shaping his AT Field and casting it out to try to bounce it off a hidden enemy.

Back in the control room, Maya giggled as Makoto silently pointed out the new waveform bouncing around the virtual realm. After being surprised by an invisible Angel in the simulators after fighting the twin Angel, Shinji was always utilizing his AT Field as a sort of detection and ranging system. The girls often tried to duplicate the shape that allowed for it, but as it usually was when it came to the defensive system their efforts were not as exact as his. This caused him no small amount of grief from Asuka, and a battery of questions from Rei.

"It's an extrapolation from the Sixth Angel." Doctor Akagi cut in, shooting a look at her techs, who bent back over their stations. "As you know, the Sixth was capable of twinning itself, becoming two slightly smaller Angels. Today you'll be fighting a sort of hive mind Angel, based off of bees or ants."

"I'm fighting insects?" Shinji asked, a little incredulous.

"No, you're fighting an Angel that has an aspect of a swarm of bees or a colony of army ants." Ritsuko corrected. "I'm going to start you off with a small swarm of truck sized Angel."

"Do I need to kill them all at once to get rid of them? Do they mesh back together when they get hurt to heal up like the Sixth?" Shinji asked as he looked around, watching for scuttling Angels. "Because I'm probably going to need something with a higher rate of fire than this rifle."

Ritsuko smirked. "I guess that you'll have to find out. You can't always rely on us to be able to figure out the Angel's abilities before you go up against them." She cut the link, and nodded at Lieutenant Aoba. "Go ahead and load the first wave."

The long haired technician nodded and sent up the commands to the MAGI. Shortly after that, Shinji saw the first of the swarm, a truck sized scorpion-ant hybrid, the bird's skull staring at him as it hurried through the streets, claws snapping at him, the tail curling over top of it, ending in a wicked looking stinger. It was a mottled grey and black, the shiny carapace glistening like an oil slick. Shinji stared at it for a moment, his face twisted in a mix of amusement and disbelief. It was no threat to him in the Evangelion.

It snapped its claws at him again, and continued to scuttle towards him. Shinji raised the rifle up slightly, and fired a short burst at it, obliterating it. The ruined shell flew backwards, blood and goo splattering the road and the buildings. Shinji hurried towards it, flipping it over with his rifle, looking for a core. Not finding one, he crushed it underfoot, making sure that it was dead.

Looking around for the others, he found about thirty them, some clinging to buildings and others moving resolutely towards him. Grinning, he raised the rifle. He made short work of most of them, cutting them down before they got close enough to use their claws or stingers. The remaining handful turned around and fled, prompting him to chase after them.

Inside the Pribnow Box, Ritsuko nodded to Aoba. He quickly typed in the next group of commands to the super computers.

Shinji's jaw dropped as the three mini-Angels began to shake, their backs deforming as they grew wings. They took to the skies, and then they began to split, twinning themselves in the same fashion as the Sixth Angel. He quickly raised his rifle and began firing, but soon the sky was filled with the Angel Swarm. Dropping the expended rifle, Shinji dashed for one of the armament buildings, swatting the swarm away from him whenever they came too close.

They buzzed in at him, claws and stingers useless against his armor, trying to latch onto him regardless. He reached in and pulled out another rifle, bringing it to bear against his foes. They died quickly, but the swarm seemed to be ever growing. He watched in horror as they started to shake again, trembling as their tails shifted, stingers starting to look like gun barrels.

He yelped in outrage and startled pain as the first of the blasts of light slammed into him, the sting not very painful, but more annoying than anything else. His AT Field shot up in a tight bubble around him as dozens of blasts were fired from the buzzing swarm. Grabbing another of the rifles, he shot them one handed, scything his way through the assembled swarm.

The controllers watched his vital signs and the data feeds sighed. While his vitals and synchronization scores were fine, this was, tactically speaking, one of the worst training runs that he had ever done. It certainly was the worst he had performed in a long time. Ritsuko sighed again and pulled out her phone to message Misato, telling her to come to the main control room.

Misato showed up a few moments later, having been watching Asuka's tests in the secondary control room. Her greeting died on her lips as she watched Shinji flailing about, swatting ineffectually at the insectoid Angels.

Slipping on a headset, she plugged into the communications network, and she shook her head as Shinji's panicked commentary.

"Oh, come on! This is bullshit!" He ran from the swarm towards another armament building.

"Shinji!" Misato cut in, her voice sharp and upset. "What are you doing?"

"Misato!" Shinji shouted back, sounding annoyed. "I'm trying to kill bees with a rifle! What does it look like I'm trying to do?" Having wrenched open the building's gate and securing a new weapon, he opened up on the angry cloud.

"How long have you been running around like an idiot?" She asked, her eyes narrowed and arms crossed. "What happened to the Evangelion pilot that likes to come up with new ways to use his AT Field?"

"What, am I supposed to use the AT Field like a weapon now?" Shinji retorted, still firing the rifle. "I thought that it didn't work that way."

"So?" Misato said, unsympathetic to the pilot's complaints. "Think outside the box, Shinji. You're doing terrible in there. You haven't done this bad since you started pilot training." She muted her microphone, and listened for a few minutes to the boy grumbling under his breath as he continued fighting. Turning the microphone back on, she interrupted his grousing. "Most of your kills are in the berserker state, Shinji. That might be well and good against a singular foe, even if it's not optimal, but against a group of enemies it's not going to help you any." Hitting the mute switch again, she turned to her friend.

"If he doesn't start improving in a little bit, start having them blow up on him. Run him through it again." She pulled the headset off and dropped it on the computer terminal. "I'm going to go check on Rei's test, and then I'm going back to watch Asuka."

"How are they doing?" Ritsuko lowered her voice. "If they are doing as well as Shinji, we're going to be here all night."

"They've never had to worry about fighting an army before. I'm surprised that he's managed to keep his field up as long as he has." Misato murmured back. "Asuka's having issues as well, but she's managed to keep the swarm size down. She's also a lot more vocal about how much she thinks this is dumb." Misato made a face. "You know how she is."

Ritsuko laughed softly. "Yes, I know how she is. It's a good thing that we decided to try this now. Can you imagine what a swarm capable Angel could do, if all the pilots are doing this bad? It's not outside the realm of possibility either."

"Well, that's why we're doing this, at least partly. It eases them into doing sims against an army. It opens them up to the idea of fighting multiple, independent targets rather than a singular Angel."

Ritsuko rolled her eyes. "I was at the briefing, you know. I even helped you write it." She frowned as she studied her friend. "You aren't really comfortable with the idea of them fighting people, are you?"

Misato shook her head. "I know that I told the Commander that they'd be fine, but… They're already just a few steps down from being child soldiers. It's the extenuating circumstances that force us to use them to fight the Angels. Using them and the Evangelions against human targets strips that from us. We'll be no better than war criminals…"

Ritsuko sighed. "I know it's difficult, but… If the UN wants to try to take the Evangelions for their own, they'll take the pilots and force them to fight whatever they wanted them to. Or, they would take the Evangelions and not the pilots, and they would be worthless when the next Angel arrived. It's better this way, I think. Could you imagine what it would be like for them if we put them through the usual emergency drills?"

Misato shuddered, trying to imagine the three teenagers running through the bi-annual close combat shooting course and the emergency threat repulsion course that all regular NERV employees were required to take. Several NERV installations were in places that sometimes underwent significant civil unrest. NERV expected its employees to be able to defend themselves in emergency situations.

"You're right; I think this is better. Even if they don't fight, if they're just in the Evangelions they'll be safe from anything that anyone might throw at them. They wouldn't have an option otherwise. Now they just have to worry about getting cut off from the Evangelions." Misato sighed, running her hands through her hair as she watched the screen. "I'll be back in little while."

"All right. I'll let you know how he does." Ritsuko nodded at her friend before grabbing her arm. "Oh, and one more thing. Don't tell the Commander what you think he wants to hear. If you've got doubts about something, let him know. He doesn't want yes-men for sub-commanders."

Misato winced, making a disgusted face. "Yeah, I know. But he knows anyways, doesn't he? He always knows what people are thinking, what they're about to do."

"He does. But he wants to hear it from you. Don't be afraid to bring up protests or questions."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm still trying to adjust to thinking of him as a human being, instead as… well, something else, I guess." Misato shook her head again as she left the room.

Ritsuko turned back to the main screen, watching Shinji's AT Field manifest as he tried to use it as a fly swatter. Sighing again as she watched the waveform dance about on the display, she pulled out a cigarette and tucked it in her mouth, wishing that she could smoke in the control room. It was going to be a long day.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka grumbled to herself as she waited for the coffee pot to finish brewing, wondering if she could get away with taking the entire thing with her back to the lab. Her hair was still damp from the shower, and still smelled like LCL. Frowning, she grabbed a strand of it and breathed deeply, her nose crinkling at the mixed scents of blood and shampoo. She jumped slightly as a hand clasped her shoulder. Turning around, her frown grew deeper as she stared at Kaji.

"Hey, Kiddo, what's up?" He asked, looking critically at her. Her eyes were bloodshot and dark bags were beginning to form under them. "You look like a mess."

She pursed her lips for a moment before shaking her head. "I'm fine. Just trying to do some work." She turned back to the coffee pot. "What are you even doing here? I thought that the UN had pulled all their people."

A little shocked at her irate tone, he paused for a moment before answering. "They actually fired me. NERV decided to hire me on, like how they did with Misato." It was a not quite a lie. Gendo's move to retain several former UN personnel had shocked and upset his contacts in the UN, but it did give them a way to keep him in the middle of the organization even after the recall or outright dismissal of the liaison officers assigned to NERV. Gendo of course, had wanted to keep him around to make use of him, and probably to keep an eye on his movements and activities.

She snorted. "I can see why they would want to keep her, but I thought that you would have been a goner. You just work in Section 2." The coffee maker chirped at them, prompting Asuka to fill up her red and white GEHIRN mug to the top with the hot elixir. "What do you do that would make the Commander want to keep you around? What makes you special, what makes you stand out? Security drones are a dime a dozen." She took a careful sip from her mug, studying him.

Kaji frowned at her back. "I do a lot of stuff. I'm very good at my job." He filled up a Styrofoam cup with coffee, spooning a liberal amount of sugar into it. "I haven't seen you for a few days. Have I upset you or something? Let's sit and talk for a little bit."

She shook her head, one hand going into the pocket of her lab coat. "I've got work to do. This data won't analyze itself." She pulled out her data pad; bringing up the latest data downloads from the day's tests. She walked out of the room before he could say anything else.

Kaji watched her go, torn between wanting to find out what was bothering the normally exuberant and attention-demanding girl, and his desire to break into the hidden rooms several floors below them, tucked away in a black area on the blueprints, accessible only from a lift in the main labs. He shrugged and decided to talk to Misato about it the next time he saw her.

Asuka breathed a sigh of relief when the man didn't follow after her, demanding to know what was wrong. It was something that she had fantasized about before, but now it was something she just didn't want to have to deal with. It was hard seeing him around these days, and his casual comments didn't help anything. On the other hand, if he had followed her, wanting to console her... She sighed unhappily, wondering what it was exactly she wanted.

After he had started hooking up with Misato, he had been over at the apartment a lot, often having dinner with them, sometimes cooking when Shinji was off with Rei. She saw more of him now these days than she had after they first got to Tokyo-3. It was obvious to her that it was Misato that he was after, that she was the one he had deemed worthy of his affections. It had hurt, a lot, and it still did, but she was just going to bury herself in her work instead of confronting the man about it. Whatever he had to say about was going to be the same old song and dance about her not being mature enough, and she was not in the mood to hear it. She could get away from the apartment and Misato and him while she was here in the labs.

Another plus to being down here was that she didn't have to see Shinji and Wondergirl sucking face. While the couple was very boring, and she doubted that they had gotten any further than first base, no matter how naked they might have been at each other early on, she still didn't want to have to put up with them making kissy faces at each other. Sometimes she wondered if she should have pushed them together the way she had, if it was the right thing to do. It had seemed so at the time, but now she wasn't sure. Hikari and Toji were almost just as bad, although the brunette acted all shy and demure about it, even though Asuka was sure that she was a little minx. Besides, as nice as it was having Hikari to talk to sometimes, the girl just didn't understand half of what she was talking about, and the girl was still concerned with getting through high school. She just wasn't on the same level as she was; Asuka had grown out of those stages long ago out of necessity. What was even worse was that Hikari and Rei spent almost as much time together at home as they did with their boyfriends. They collaborated on things together like siblings, a close bond forming from living together. She shared no such bond with Shinji, despite her attempts to make him a more respectable person.

As long as her scores and performance with Unit-02 remained high, Misato didn't care what she did with her free time. If she stayed and worked on the technical aspects of the red Evangelion, that was fine. Maya had called their dalliance off a little while ago, obviously thinking of her as a child as well. The others obviously grouped her in with the other pilots as a mere high school student, and didn't consider her to be an equal at all.

It hurt her at her very core, their casual dismissal. Hadn't they seen her accomplishments? Did they forget that she had graduated from university, that she was a tried and tested leader in actual combat, that she made regular contributions to the development of improved systems for the Evangelions, and that she was working on her own research projects aimed at earning her first doctorate? She was at least the equal of even the newest technical division hire, better than their interns, and certainly better than the other pilots. NERV, as an organization, was a meritocracy, and despite all the appearances given by the appointment of the pilots, not given to nepotism or cronyism. She had earned her spot as a pilot, but they still could not see that she had more than earned their respect as a researcher and technician. What else did she have to do in order to claim the accolades that she was surely due?

Well, she would show them! They could think of her as uneducated and inconsequential all they wanted, but she would figure out just how Shinji was doing what he was with Unit-01, and then she would do it better. She might even publish a paper on it, the first new one done on the Evangelions in years! Let them chew on that. While the main research crews were focused more of improving armor systems and repairing the one of-a-kind weapons systems, she would isolate and figure out the anomaly behind the Third Child's AT Field abilities. She might even redefine what they knew about the energy field!

Locking the door behind her, she smiled as the MAGI unpaused the music she had playing. Music always helped put her in a better mood, and it helped her concentrate when studying or working. She had an ear for it, and sometimes wished that she had learned to play an instrument when she was younger. But just like back then, there just wasn't any time for it. Humming along to the cello suite, she slumped down in her chair, kicking it into a slow spin as she sipped her coffee and started going over the raw data, already starting to feel better. Solitude might actually be better than dealing with everyone else, at least for now. Asuka had a good feeling about the results from the latest batch of tests, and was sure that she was on the path to a breakthrough.

She was no slouch when it came to the AT Field as she routinely had the highest synchronization scores, which had a direct influence on how much the pilot could control the field and how strong it was. Tied into the subconscious part of the mind, it was a reflexive field that took the pilot's sense of personal space and made it a physical reality. It could be shaped and altered somewhat by use of the emitters and by the pilot focusing on it, but the level of malleability that Shinji enjoyed with Unit-01 was simply impossible with his synchronization scores, which while not quite as good as hers, were still higher than would be expected from someone as new to the program as he was.

If he could do it at his level, then she should be able to do it at hers. Despite how bleedingly cutting-edge technology the Evangelions were, they were still nothing more than puppets of meat and metal, cybernetic armored suits with which to defend the world. The products of a genius' mad dreams, yes, but still nothing that a determined pilot couldn't bend to her will. It was galling that he did it all as a matter of routine. No matter how much she pressed him for details, no matter how Rei phrased her own questions, Shinji just wasn't able to explain to them how he did it. He would just shrug and blather on and on about how he didn't know it what was he did with it. It seemed that he was just a natural at it, just like the other techs thought.

She couldn't accept that. He might be a natural at it, which was fine, even if it was shoddy thinking to look no further than that, but there was no way that she was as bad as a pilot that she couldn't also do it. It didn't make any sense, which she tried to explain constantly to the others, but they just shrugged it off, too busy to want to dig deeper and unravel the mystery. But eventually, all mysteries were solvable, every riddle unlocked. All it took was a matter of time and patience, of tests and procedures. Every great researcher and scientist had their great problem that defined them as a person, as a scientist, as a legend. Einstein had Relativity, Plank had Quantum Physics, Oppenheimer had Nuclear Fission, and Von Braun had his rockets. Perhaps Asuka Langley Soryu had the AT Field.

She would get to the bottom of the issue, no matter what.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kaji scowled at the obstinate lock, the only thing that was keeping him out of the set of rooms beyond the door and from whatever secrets lay within. It had been hard work, getting past the security systems on the lift that led to this level, but he had managed it. It had required crawling upside down through the cable duct that ran parallel to the elevator, but he had persevered. But it seemed that there were no other ways past this wall except the door before him, and there was no way through the door except by opening the lock. His security clearance and official job gave him open access to much of the base, even the normally off limits sections, but the elevator and the floor he was currently on weren't covered by any of the Section-2 offices he had poked around in. That alone made this a place of interest, and when one added in the fact that it didn't exist at all on the blueprints, even as obviously doctored as they were, well, Gendo might as well as have put a giant neon sign on it.

Whatever lay past door NTD402-1A was important to the Commander, and thus important to Kaji's shadowy masters in the UN, JSSDF, and SEELE. Whether or not he actually told any of them what he had found in there was another thing entirely, though. SEELE was unhappy with him after the recent fiasco, saying that he had acted on his own and that they had not dispatched any agents to deliver new instructions. Some choice intelligence on what Ikari's next moves might be could smooth over their ruffled feathers, but at the same time he wasn't sure if their ruffled feathers could be smoothed out. His masters in the UN and the JSSDF were after him to get them more on the Commander's intentions, and both would welcome news of whatever was behind the door. They also wanted him to find out what exactly had happened to cause the power outage, and what NERV was planning, but he wasn't planning on telling them about all that. Gendo had other spies scattered about, and he had no desire for the Commander to find out about his part in the whole affair.

Kneeling down, he reached into the small bag of tools, going for his pass card machine. He would try to spoof whatever pass card gave access to the door again, he decided. If it still didn't work then he would have to try to nick a card from off of someone else with a higher security clearance. He had easy access to several such people, although he wasn't sure if he wanted to lift their security cards. He would have to develop the situation a little bit before acting on it.

The machine beeped a negative tone at him, unable to trick the electronic lock that it was an appropriate card. He stuffed it back into the bag, and stood up, stretching out the kinks in his back. Both Misato and Ritsuko ought to be able to get into the room, but both would notice that they were missing their pass cards almost immediately. Misato might think that she had lost hers in the mess of her apartment, but Ritsuko would suspect him of lifting it if it just disappeared after he visited her.

As he worked out the tight spots, his gaze fell on the ventilation grate, a thoughtful look drawing over his face as he studied it. It would be a tight fit, but probably no tighter than the electrical duct that he had crawled through. It had worked for the children on two occasions, so there was no reason for it not to work for him. Packing the rest of his tools into the bag, he hurried back towards the elevator. He would try to get Misato's card, and if it didn't work he would try the air vent. In the meantime, he still had the giant gate down in Terminal Dogma to try to get past, and he still wanted to try to get into Gehenna, the Angel Graveyard that Ritsuko had mentioned before. While it might not offer any immediate answers to his questions, it would still be interesting to see what NERV did with the remains of the Angels.

As he reached for the call button, the elevator pinged and went into motion. He stared at it for a second before bolting down the hallway for one of the empty rooms that his hacked pass card let him into. Pulling the door almost shut, he watched the elevator doors. They opened up, letting Rei out. The girl, wearing the labcoat that she was sometimes dressed in, walked past and headed down the hallway, stopping at the mysterious room. She swiped her card, and the doors unlocked for her, bathing the hallway in soft amber light. Kaji stared open-mouthed as she walked into the room, the lock engaging with a solid sounding click as the door closed behind her.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji looked up from his homework to Misato, who was standing in the doorway. "You've got a phone call, Shinji." Her voice was mix of concern and confusion. "It's your father."

Sighing, Shinji pushed back from his desk, certain that he knew why his father was calling. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the overture, but at the same time he didn't know how he should feel about it. He wondered if the phone call was partly prompted by the postponed dinner with Rei. Ignoring Misato and Asuka's curious looks, he picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Shinji. It's almost that time of year." His father's voice sounded almost bored, as if he was discussing the weather and not his dead wife.

"I wasn't planning on visiting, if that's what you were wondering." Shinji said, deciding to get to the heart of the matter. "It's not like she's actually there – you said as much before." His voice was slightly accusatory. Asuka's mouth dropped open, but Shinji turned around to stare at the wall as he talked to his father.

"She isn't there." Gendo agreed, his voice showing no surprise at the sudden show of backbone from his usually docile son. "There was nothing left of her, but that in and of itself is no reason not to visit. It is a place to remember her. To mourn, for those left behind to celebrate her life, and to grieve at her passing, to commiserate in their sorrow. That is the reason for the artifice of the grave, even though it is empty." There was a slight pause before he continued. "I will be there this week. If you wish to go, you will be excused from class."

The invitation was there, a rare chance to spend time with his father. A chance to spend time together, and to talk with him. Before he had stopped going, he had always been too timid, too intimidated by his father's presence, of the cold and uncaring exterior to speak, but now? "I'll go." Shinji blurted out, barely able to keep his voice even.

"I'll see you there, then." As usual, Shinji wasn't able to tell if his father approved or cared from his voice. The phone disconnected without warning, leaving him with a dial tone. If it had been anyone else, Shinji would have thought that there had been something wrong with the line, but his father had never been one for goodbyes. He had never been much of one for hellos, either. Returning the handset to the cradle, he looked at Misato.

"I'll be going to my mother's grave on Thursday, so I won't be going to school." He informed her. "I'll let the teachers know, and I'll get my assignments from them.."

"Your mother's grave?" Asuka asked, curious. "Is it near the anniversary, then?" She ignored the pained look from their guardian.

"Yes, it's near the anniversary." Shinji confirmed. "It's been awhile since I went. I stopped going a few years ago."

"I haven't been to my mother's grave since I was eight." Asuka said. "There was no reason to at first, and soon there was no time." She shrugged, returning to her tablet. "Now it's on the other side of the world. I guess it's okay for you, if you like that sort of thing."

Misato breathed a small sigh of relief. The loss of loved ones was always a touchy subject, and Asuka wasn't exactly the most delicate person when it came to conversations. Even as a young girl, she had been brash and caustic, and had viewed visiting her mother's grave in Berlin as a waste of time, preferring to focus on the present and future rather than dwelling on the past. Shinji might be a relatively calm and docile boy most of the time, but he had his buttons that when pressed could spark anger in him, and the problem with the quiet ones was that you didn't always know what would set them off. Rei was definitely one of those things, obviously, but she didn't know how he might take the casual dismissal of his dead mother.

Asuka had been a bit more subdued of late, though, her abrasive edges finally starting to smooth out. While she didn't know what had prompted the change, Misato was happy to roll with it. Less fighting inside the pilot corps was always a good thing, and not having to put up with an irritable, jealous teenager at home was a definite plus. Kaji had said something about the girl having stopped leaving phone messages and texts for him last week, which Misato took for the girl starting grow up and giving up the crush that she had on the man. That in and of itself was a relief.

"All right, I'll drop a call to the office then." Misato said, writing herself a note. "I guess you'll probably be out of training that day too?"

Shinji shrugged. "He didn't say anything about that, just class." Grabbing a glass of water, he walked back to his room and his homework. "Knowing him, I'll still have to do training." He called back to the living room.

Sitting back down in his chair, he stared at the math problems, finding it hard to concentrate on them. It wasn't that he was feeling particularly morose, but he had been trying to not think about the anniversary of his mother's death for the past few days, trying to keep himself occupied with other things. His father's phone call had ruined that. Sighing, he got up and plopped down on his bed, taking his leg off and in a fit of irritation threw it at his closet door, the prosthetic bouncing off of it into a corner. Reaching for his music player, he stuck the earbuds in his ears, deciding to try to drown everything out with music.

He frowned as a cheerful waltz filled his ears, not in the mood for Strauss. Staring at the display, he thumbed through the different playlists, trying to find something more appropriate. Finally coming to a song that seemed to fit his black mood, Shinji closed his eyes as the opening strains of Handel's Sarabande filled his ears. The harpsichord sounded both mournful and upset, the slow meter of the song a fitting match for his growing dread and apprehension.

Far underground, ripples formed on the surface of the coolant in Unit-01's cage as a shiver ran through the Evangelion, a dull, barely noticeable glow coming from its eyes.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka woke up with a start, drenched in sweat. Her stomach was killing her, her abdomen tight, this month's cycle being harsher than usual. Swearing, she staggered down the hallway towards the bathroom. Nightmares and menstruating did not mix, she mused to herself as she started the shower. Neither did this plague of self doubt mix well with either, she thought as she tried to wash away the sick feelings along with the sweat from her night terrors.

Letting the hot water rush over her, she leaned up against the wall, trying to forget the stupid nightmare. It had been of her mother again, after the accident. She tried not to think of her mother after that horrible day, preferring to try to remember her the way that she was before, but it was hard. It was hard and nobody cared or understood. Shinji at least didn't have to remember his mom as some insane woman who cared more about a doll than her own daughter. The insanity was the worst part, especially when one thought about all the woman's accomplishments, all of her achievements being the products of a beautiful, brilliant mind. After the accident, there had been none of that left in her mother's body, only a raving madwoman, who had supplanted her daughter with a doll, and eventually killed herself, and her 'daughter'. They were two different people, in her mind, and only one worth mourning or remembering. Kyoko Soryu had died the day she had gone into the Entry Plug in the limited Contact experiment, not a year and some months later, and no one could tell her otherwise.

It was weird, she thought, how two of the three pilots had lost their mothers to the Evangelion program. Rei was the oddball of the group, in more ways than one, of course, but she was an orphan, her parents having dumped her on the government. They probably didn't want to try to support a kid in the turbulent times after Second Impact. Lots of babies ended up in the orphanage systems, if they were lucky enough to be born in country that had one. Plenty of them hadn't, even after the worst of the wars and civil unrest was over. Plenty of third rate dictatorships made extensive use of child soldiers.

Feeling a little better after the shower, she tossed back a few pain killers, glaring into the mirror. It was three in the morning. If she didn't take sleeping pills, she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, but she would be groggy all day long if she did. She could stay awake, and just be a little tired later in the afternoon. Grumbling to herself, she decided to put the time she was going to be awake anyways to good use, and go back over her research.

Walking past Shinji's room, she looked in through the open door. He was lying on top of the sheets, wearing shorts and a t-shirt. He looked weird without his fake leg, the asymmetry of his body a stark warning of the dangers of higher synchronization. She studied him for a minute, wondering again how he managed to do the things he did in the Evangelion. It should have been her missing her leg, not him. He shouldn't have been able to synch with her Unit-02 anyways. The personality core was set up for her, not him, and the cross-coordination experiments had shown that neither of them could move the other's Evangelion. It was another maddening mystery, another drop in the ocean of conflicting data and information that surrounded Unit-01 and the boy.

She had poured over the data that had been recovered from the fight, but hadn't been able to get anything useful out of it. Maybe if she took another look at it and compared it to recent data she might glean something new. One never knew what could be found in old data after new insights had been made.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Gendo put the phone down and smirked over the game board at Kozo. "They found the Lance." He said as he placed a black tile down on the board. "It's buried almost entirely in the plate shelf."

"Will they be able to salvage it?" Kozo asked, looking up from the report he had been reading, glancing first at the board and then at his friend. "Is it to our advantage to remove it now and risk SEELE finding out about it, or should we leave it where it is and retrieve it later?"

"They've already begun salvage operations." Gendo said. "We're going to go inspect the site. If the Lance is there, there may be other artifacts from the expedition."

Kozo looked at his friend, a pained expression on his face. "In the Antarctic?" He asked as he placed a tile of his own on the board, swapping out three of Gendo's for his. "To the Ruined Sea?" Travel had never agreed with the elderly Sub-Commander, even when he had been younger. His primary field of work was largely theoretical, and he was more than happy to spend his time in an office simply thinking about the problems they faced and how to solve them.

"It will be good for you to get out of the city for a while. Besides, we should let our new sub-commander spread her wings a little, and see how she handles a solo command." He looked over the board, and put down another tile before returning to his own reports.

"What other sort of artifacts do you think might be found? The only things I recall from any of the reports were of ADAM and the Lance."

"I'm thinking of items from the base itself, not artifacts like those things." Gendo clarified. "I don't know how involved with SEELE Katsuragi was, but if there was anything left over that might be of use to us in our current struggles, I want it. I find it hard to believe that he didn't have secure backups of his research in some sort of capsule. He knew what he had there in the caves of ice, in that ancient prison." The man shook his head as he studied the game board. "He knew full well what he was doing, that he was courting disaster. He would have had something prepared in the event of an accident."

"What was it like, seeing Him?"

"Amazing, at first. Terrifying, after you realized just what it was you were looking at. He looked like a massive stone carving, a giant, frozen in ice, the Lance shoved through his midsection. Even knowing beforehand that it was a god that was there, I could not help but think it a creation of artifice at first glance.

The face was monstrous, a scarred parody of a man's. He looked somewhat like the Evangelions, in their base state, without the restraints. But they are mere shadows of the power that He was, even in that pitiful state. He wore armor, the metal pitted and worn, the marks of past battles writ upon it, even as they had left scars on his skin." Gendo paused, his hands tented in front of him as he thought back to the first time that he had stood in the presence of a god, open mouthed and staring in the frozen cavern. Yui had laughed at him, telling him later that it she had never seen him so incredulous looking before.

"His lower half was still frozen in ice, completely encased. It was very cold in the cavern, colder than anywhere else I had been at the labs. It would grow on him if they let it, frost forming first, then solid chunks of ice spreading across the excavated areas. They kept massive heaters on him, but still he was so cold that you would get contact frostbite if you touched him without heavy gloves. It was unreal. We suspected that the ice continent had formed around him, throughout all of history."

Kozo shook his head. "Well, if the Lance stopped Him in the past, then it should do well for His progeny." He stood up, straightening out his jacket. "I suppose that I'll go pack." He paused, frowning. "Wait, aren't you visiting the grave with Shinji tomorrow? How soon are we leaving?"

Gendo shrugged. "We'll leave immediately afterwards. I don't expect that we'll have much to say to one other. He is coming along nicely, but I do not think that he is ready yet to hear what it is that I have to say. A few words should be all that is needed to push him along in the right direction, and Rei will handle the rest, as usual, simply by being there."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei looked up from her book as the helicopter came in and took off again after picking up the Commander. He was heading off with Sub-Commander Fuyutuski for the Antarctic to oversee the salvage operations on the Lance of Longinus, leaving Sub-Commander Katsuragi in overall command of Tokyo-3.

Today was the anniversary of Doctor Yui Ikari's 'death'. It was also the first time in several years that Shinji was visiting the grave that had been established in his mother's memory. She had gathered from both Shinji and Commander Ikari that they were meeting at the gravesite more to share time together in order to bond rather than mourn the woman. The Commander did not mourn her, because she was not truly dead. She had no idea if Shinji mourned her, as they had never discussed it before. The subject of dead relatives, she had learned very early on, was one that should be avoided under normal circumstances.

After closing her book and putting it in her bag, she stood up, watching Shinji walking slowly back to her. His hands were tucked into his pockets, slightly slouched over. He did not look to be particularly upset, but she was unsure if she should take his body language as an indicator of how he felt. His father kept his own body language controlled, giving no hints at all of what he thought or felt to anyone.

Shinji pulled his hands out of his pockets and pulled her into a tight hug, kissing her forehead and resting his chin on the top of her head. She let out a startled squeak, but wrapped her arms around him. He was tense, and she could feel his heart pounding away in his chest. Squeezing her, he let go, one hand grabbing hers as they started to walk back to the entrance of the graveyard.

"I don't really understand him very well," he commented as they walked. "One day he's cold and unreachable, and the next he's offering me advice."

"He is concerned about you. We have discussed this before," she said, a tad reproachfully. "He is concerned for the future of all Mankind." She paused as Shinji grunted. "What advice did he offer you?"

"That man is supposed to stand on his own two feet, to seize what he can, and never look back. To keep everything he cares about close to him, to accept no obstacles as insurmountable." Shinji snorted and shook his head. "What ever happened to not bothering him with childish things? Does he want me to not take no from him as an answer? How do I get him to acknowledge me as his son, instead of as a tool?"

"Even if he sees you as a tool, you are still a valuable tool to him." Rei said after a while. "We are all tools, to be used in the fight to keep Mankind safe from the threat of a Third Impact. Have you never thought about what it is that he does? He built NERV, the Evangelions, as a safeguard against that day. Everything that he has done is to secure the future of Man, to ensure that we do not pass from History."

They left the graveyard in silence, the boy brooding over the mixed signals he got from his father, the girl brooding over how the two most important people in her life antagonized each other. Both sides had valid reasons for the way they felt, based on the information available to them and their respective responsibilities, but she still could not help but wish that they could just get along.

They had been given the day off from training at NERV, Doctor Akagi wanting the time to write new simulations for them, saying that the swarm simulation wasn't enough of a test, and that she had plans for a new batch of training scenarios. Soryu was planning on sequestering herself in the lab that she had claimed for her own, swearing violently that she would get to the bottom of Shinji's strange abilities with the AT Fields, the latest of her academic pursuits.

Rei had opted to accompany Shinji to the graveyard, and then they were going to go for a walk through one of the several parks that dotted Tokyo-3 on the way back to the apartment to review and study for their upcoming history test. Sub-Commander Katsuragi was not going to be home, as she was going to be busy with getting acquainted with running the Geo-Front and the city.

Had Rei been one prone to self-doubt, some of Tabris' parting words might have had her wondering if Shinji did not reciprocate her feelings. Rei was not one to suffer self-doubt, however, being sure of herself. She knew why she existed, why she was born, why she lived and why she would die. Her entire existence was to be spent in the service of the Commander. There was no room in her life for existential quandaries.

At any rate, she had empirical evidence supporting the theory that Shinji did reciprocate her feelings; his statements of affection, his demonstrations of physical protection against real and perceived threats, and his own overtures of physical affection. While it was true that she almost always was the one to physically initiate physical contact, he never shied away, and often escalated the intimacy of their interactions. She knew that he loved her. Besides, if he was anything at all like his father, and she had concluded that they shared many similarities, then he would not be prone to making overt displays of affection.

But a small, almost silent part of her subconsciously worried at her brother's words. It did not pick apart his words like a scientist would a mysterious sample, nor did it dissect them under an impassive, detached gaze. It worried and worried at the phrase like a tongue seeking a cut on the roof of one's mouth, not quite wanting to poke at it, but unable to leave it alone.

It was this voice that led her to pull him against her tightly as they wandered through the rows of flowers, trying to console itself with his presence, to drown it out in physical contact, to silence it forever. It was not this voice, however, that lead her hand to fall below his waist and rest on his rear, periodically squeezing it as he blushed a furious red. He did nothing to stop or push her away though, pointedly ignoring some of the raised eyebrows and snickers from other people as they passed by.

They wound their way through the city at an unhurried pace, but ended up at the apartment before too long. They had things to do, and neither was prone to procrastination – the girl by her training, and the boy through the girl's prodding. As Rei started to lay out their notes and books, Shinji went into the kitchen to prepare tea for them. She smiled as she listened to him humming away in the kitchen, getting the cups ready as the water boiled. He only hummed to himself when he was happy – if he was humming now, then he must have come to some manner of terms with himself and his relationship with his father.

She looked up from her book when he came back into the room, carefully setting the two cups down on the table. He sat down next to her on the couch, and she could see him watching her from the corner of his eye as he picked up a book and a cup. He put the book back down as he sipped carefully at the steaming liquid, his nostrils flaring slightly at the heady scent of peppermint, still watching her.

Curious, she picked up her own cup, taking a small sip of the tea. She detected nothing out of the normal, the tea being no different from the other times that they had had it. She wondered idly if he had added anything to it. She did not think that he was given towards pharmaceutical experimentation, but one never knew. For all their differences, he was still his father's son.

"Rei?" he asked, taking a deep breath as he set his cup back down on the table next to his book, "why do you like me?"

"Why do I like you?" she repeated, her eyes going wide at the question. "I do not understand-"

"You like my father, which I guess you would, he practically raised you, and he rescued you, but, why do you like me? I'm nothing like him, and I don't know why you like me- I mean, I know that you **do**, but I don't know why you like doing things like grabbing my butt, and-"

Rei interrupted him. "I do not like you because you are like your father. I like you because you are yourself. I like you because…" she trailed off, unable to put her feelings and reasons to words. While she had originally had more than a passing interest in him, the primary reason for their initial interactions beyond that of as pilots of the Evangelions had been at the Commander's behest, and she did not think that Shinji would like to hear that at all. Their cell phones started to ring, but she ignored them, her eyes locked on her boy.

"You are important to me," he said, "and I don't want to lose you. Not to an Angel, and not because I don't like my father." He looked uncomfortable and unhappy, but his features softened when he continued after a long pause. "You make me happy, Rei. I love being with you." He leaned in close to her, his eyes locked on her, pausing for just a second before moving the rest of the way in to kiss her, one hand pushing her down against the couch, the other closing in around her right breast, gently squeezing through the fabric. She arched her back underneath him, dropping the cup of tea on the floor as she reached up and embraced him, pulling him closer. Her mouth opened slightly, drawing in his lower lip as they kissed.

"Rei? Rei, it's time to get up for school."

Rei's eyes snapped open at the sound of Hikari's voice, going immediately to the open doorway where her friend stood, already dressed. Rei sat up mechanically; pushing the sweat soaked sheets away and looking for her alarm clock. It sat in broken shambles on the other side of the room, where she had apparently thrown it.

"Rei, all you okay? You're normally up before me. You're normally up before your alarm rings, even." Hikari asked from the doorway, where she hovered uncertainly, not sure if she should go in the room or not. "Should I call someone at NERV?"

"No. I am fine." Rei reassured her friend, going to the chest of drawers, stripping off the shirt she wore to sleep, pulling a bra from the top drawer. "I overslept." She took slow, deep breaths, trying to ignore the fact that her heart was pounding loudly in her chest. The flush that she felt burning on her face extended down her body, feeling very warm all over.

"Well, if you're sure that you're okay, then." Hikari turned on the room's light and went off to go make breakfast, closing the door behind her.

"Hikari," Rei called after her, prompting the other girl to open the door, a concerned look on her face. "I will not be attending class today. I will accompany Shinji to his mother's grave."

"I thought that you weren't going to go? What happened?"

"The Commander is leaving after they meet at the grave. He has business elsewhere to deal with." Rei stated as she buttoned up her shirt. "If Shinji has grieving issues, he will require additional consolation." She finished buttoning the top button and reached for her uniform's skirt. "I will console him."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Doctor Akagi growled at her terminal screen, going over the program she was writing to monitor Unit-01's AT Field. She had wanted to accompany Gendo on the trip to the Antarctic to recover the Lance, but he had shot those plans down, taking the old man with him instead. He needed someone here he could trust, someone who knew everything. Misato was trustworthy, he had said, but she didn't know everything. More importantly, she wasn't ready to know everything.

So instead of a potentially romantic trip with him to the Ruined Sea, she was stuck here. Stuck here, working through the minutia of writing up new training simulators for the Children, overseeing the repairs to the Geo-Front and Evangelions, and trying to figure out how to keep Shinji from overriding the restraints and blocks on Unit-01 while trying to determining how it was that he accomplishing this in the first place. While an interesting problem and attractive mystery, it still was not as attractive as a two week get-away with her lover.

Lieutenant Ibuki looked over at her from where she was working on the installation of new data cores into Balthazar. "Ma'am? Is everything alright?"

Ritsuko leaned back in her chair, rubbing her hands through her short hair. "No, Maya, it's not. I'm missing something in this program – it's not compiling." She pushed away from the computer terminal, scooting her chair over to her desk, grabbing for her cigarettes and ashtray. She popped one into her mouth and lit it, taking a deep drag, blowing out a plume of smoke with a contented sigh. She glanced over at the other woman, a guilty look on her face. "You don't mind if I smoke while you're here, do you?"

"No," Maya replied, shaking her head. "I don't mind at all!" she replied, as cheerful as ever. One wouldn't know that it was late at night, the pair of them working far past their normal hours, or that the list of things that still needed to be done before the hardware upgrades to the organic parts of the MAGI could begin was still longer than the blonde doctor's arm. "Do you want me to take a look at it for you? Get a fresh set of eyes on it?"

Ritsuko waved her away from the computer. "Don't bother. It's nothing that can't wait for tomorrow." She sighed as she took another drag. "I'm thinking of calling it a day anyways. We've been here long enough. It seems like I always end up working later than usual when the Commander's away." She blew another plume of smoke up into the air, watching it get sucked in by the fans. "I'm surprised that you're still here. Nobody waiting for you at home?" She grinned as Maya blushed.

"N-no, I live alone." Maya shifted around in her seat, before scooting over towards her supervisor. "Do you mind if I get one of those?" she asked, reaching for the pack.

"Help yourself." Ritsuko said, shrugging. "I didn't know that you smoked."

"I don't, most of the time." The mousey lieutenant replied. "But it has been a long day." She fumbled with the lighter, not having any luck with it. Chuckling, Ritsuko leaned in and plucked the lighter from her hands, flicking the flame into life. Maya took a deep breath before lighting her cigarette, pulling back slightly, coughing a little.

"Not your brand?" Ritsuko asked with a grin.

"Usually when I do smoke, I smoke cloves. A tropical blend, much fruitier than these." Maya took a shallow drag on the cigarette, getting accustomed to it. "These are pretty harsh."

"I do like it when they bite." Ritsuko said, moving the ashtray to sit between them. Groaning, she stretched her arms up and over her head, cracking her back. Tapping her ash into the ceramic tray, she shook her head. "I do think that I'm going to call it a night." Standing up and grinding out the cigarette, she patted down her pockets to make sure that she had everything. "Don't stay down here for much longer."

"I think I'm going to leave too," Maya said, rising up from her seat. "Do- do you want to go get a drink?" she stumbled over the words, the hand holding her cigarette shaking.

Surprise slid over Ritsuko's face, but the doctor quickly quelled it. "Maya," she said gently, "I don't date co-workers." She paused for a moment, watching the younger woman's hurt and embarrassed expression. "I'm also already in a relationship."

Tears sparkled in Maya's eyes as she coughed on smoke. "But- but you've never said anything about it, I'm so sorry, I'm so stupid-"

"Maya!" Ritsuko said sharply. "I don't talk about my personal life at work, you couldn't have known. And you're not stupid. We don't keep stupid people at NERV, and I certainly don't keep stupid people on my staff. Besides, I thought that you were already seeing someone – what happened to that?"

Maya sniffled a little, her voice catching. "We called it off. She was getting frustrated at her job, and it wasn't working out, she wasn't listening to me when I tried talking to her," the words fell out of her mouth in a rush, like a dam had been broken. "And this guy that she liked is seeing someone else now, and she couldn't stop harping on it, and she didn't really care that much about me, not like that, I mean, this was just a fling for her, but –" she started crying now, the words dying off.

"Maya, shhh." Ritsuko gently hugged Maya, patting her back. "Take tomorrow off. I can get the others to work on the upgrade tasks. Take a long weekend for yourself. Go to a spa, and let yourself be pampered. It's not the end of the world."

Maya sniffled incoherently into the doctor's lab coat, but when she pulled away, she was smiling weakly. "Okay…" she said, rubbing at her eyes. "I'm sorry-"

"Shush." Ritsuko interrupted. "None of that now. No feeling sorry allowed, or I'll tell Misato. Trust me, you don't want her to try to cheer you up. You might not live through the experience."

Maya nodded as she left the room, leaving the doctor to her thoughts. Ritsuko looked around the room, sighing. "You three are not to tell anyone about this." She announced to the MAGI.

The intercom buzzed, the soft musical voice that Caspar used sparking into life. "We will not mention it to anyone, Doctor Akagi."

"And we certainly won't tell anyone about Lieutenant Ibuki and Pilot-Captain Soryu's dalliance having ended." Balthazar's atonal voice chimed in.

Ritsuko's jaw dropped in shock as the other two intelligences verbally tore into their sister, shouting at her for giving away sensitive information. Pressing a hand against her forehead, she shouted the super-computers down into silence. "Look, I don't really want to know. We're all adults here, and what other people like to do with others is none of my business, as long as it doesn't interfere with NERV's work. You three are not to tell anyone anything about any of it." She glared around the room, knowing that the super-computers could see her. "Understand?"

"We understand." They chorused.

"Good. And turn off the vocal subroutine. We've had this discussion before. It upsets people."

"We only reactivated it for this conversation because it does not upset you, Doctor."

"Well, turn it back off. Most people aren't used to computers talking back to them." Ritsuko left the room, shaking her head. The intelligences of the MAGI had been modeled after her mother, who had done the majority of the work on developing the cybernetic super-computers. Each one was slightly different, minor variations on the same theme, mirroring three aspects of her mother's personality.

The blond doctor had to admit that she got along with them better than she had her actual mother. It was hard sometimes, to not think of them as a group of younger sisters, but while she could handle talking to artificial intelligences like people, they didn't quite fit into her imagined family. On the other hand, that family was dysfunctional and weird enough that adding in three cybernetic brains as younger sisters wasn't entirely out of the question.

As she wound her way up through the labyrinthine corridors of the Geo-Front, she idly wondered what she was going to do about Maya and Asuka. If she knew Asuka, then the man and the other woman were obviously Kaji and Misato. It sort of explained the girl's moodiness these past two weeks, and Maya's own unhappiness. She sighed, not wanting to get involved with telling other people who they could and could not see. She had been against Shinji and Rei's coupling earlier, but they were working out just fine, just as Gendo had anticipated. It was still a little off-putting, considering the girl's origins, and it was slightly infuriating that every sing time that Gendo pulled a string, people danced to his whims. Asuka's performance in the Evangelion and simulations hadn't suffered noticeably, throughout her time with Maya or after. There were some deviations, but so far they had been within the expected tolerances.

Still, it was a little worrying that Asuka hadn't grown out of her little crush on the older man. She could see why the young woman was attracted to him, having once shared that attraction long ago, and it wasn't as if she had anything against desiring the love of an older man. But the girl, while still dependable and a capable researcher in her own right, had grown a little flighty in recent weeks, jumping from project to project with little focus and no sense of direction. Sighing, she swiped her pass card in the lock of the secured elevator. She would have to try to set aside some time to sit down and talk to the girl, to offer some advice and perspective. But in the meantime, both of them would just have to deal with their relationship issues just as she had to deal with being left back here by Gendo. They were doing important work, after all, and she highly doubted that the Angels or SEELE would care that they were having a hard time because of relationship woes.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Not for the first time in several days, Asuka wished that the AT Field hadn't been developed and worked on primarily in Japan. Almost all of the original development notes and research was in kanji, and while she could understand most spoken Japanese, reading the written language was more difficult. It also didn't help that most of the development work that was done in Germany was the armament and mechanical systems, and not the neural linkage and synchronization systems. She had worked hand in hand with the research directors on almost all aspects of the systems being developed in Germany, but hadn't gotten a more in-depth look at how the AT Field worked other than how to use it as a pilot.

All of these issues were not that important by themselves, but when put together and added to the fact that she was trying to unlock the mystery behind Shinji's abnormal skills with the AT Field, it became an almost insurmountable obstacle. As she continued to run into dead ends and contradicting information, the teenager became more and more frustrated.

She wanted to scream in rage at the terminal, the latest of several data-mining programs she had written returning a fatal exception error, stating that the data was impossible. None of what she had deciphered from the original development notes was adding up with the information that the onboard diagnostics reported, or the programs that she wrote based off of either. Months of research and work wasted, all spitting out conflicting answers and impossibilities.

She started to pace around the room, kicking her chair out of the way, muttering darkly to herself in German. After a few minutes of angry pacing, she stalked back to her seat, pushing it back to the computer. Sitting down, she typed in a string of commands, calling up the current documentation on the defensive field and the all past documents pertaining to it. As the list of files started to compile, she nodded to herself. If it took her reading all of the files from the very first all the way though the current system documentation, painstakingly translating them into a proper language, then that is what she was going to do.

It might take months, she thought to herself as the list of files continued to grow, but like all good Germans, she was methodical and determined. There was no mystery that could not be solved, no obstacle that could not be overcome. All it took was time, persistence and ingenuity. She was an intelligent young woman with nothing but time, and she would crack this puzzle wide open. It would just take a little longer than she had previously thought, but that was fine. No project ever went off without a hitch. There was always something, but it could be worked out, eventually. Even the greatest scientists sometimes had to wait years for vindication. It was the price of being a visionary.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji looked up from the couch towards his ward's room down the hallway when the phone rang. "Shinji, can you get that?" Misato called from, bedroom, hidden from view. "I'm a little busy right now." Shaking his head, Shinji wordlessly got up and answered the phone as Rei moved to grab the remote and paused the movie they had been watching. The woman had been searching for her security card for the past three hours, turning her already messy room upside down and inside out. He had suggested that she take everything out and clean and organize it, since she would more than likely find it then, but she had scoffed at the idea, saying that it couldn't have gone far and that it was probably just in her dirty laundry. When he had commented that her dirty laundry was literally everywhere, she had thrown a couch pillow at him.

"Hello? Katsuragi residence."

"Hallo, ist Asuka da?" a woman's voice answered him after a moment, sounding unsure to Shinji's ear. Almost all of the German he knew consisted complaints and curse words. Looking helplessly at Rei, who sat on the couch with a slightly irritated look on her face, he shrugged.

"Misato, I think it's for Asuka!" he called down the hallway, before turning back to the phone. "Um, Hallo" he replied in halting, accented German, trying to remember what little Asuka had started to teach him before giving up on the project, declaring him to be a "strohdummer, stotternder Idiot", whatever that meant. "Asuka wohnt hier, um, but… aw man..." He paused, looking back down the hall. "Misato, I think they're from Germany! Can you talk to them?"

Misato walked into the living room, grumbling to herself, and winked knowingly at Rei, who was slowly buttoning up her shirt. Taking the phone from her blushing ward and shooting him a 'way to go!' look and a thumbs up, she started chattering into the phone in rapid German, walking back down to her room to continue her search.

Sitting back down on the couch next to his girlfriend, he pulled her back against him, one arm snaking around her waist, pushing the untucked shirt up and revealing the pale skin of her stomach. Rei repositioned herself, resting her head against his shoulder as she unpaused the film, a nonsensical account of a group of astronauts trying to destroy an asteroid on a collision course with the planet.

"Where is Asuka?" Shinji asked softly, ignoring the panicked actions of the astronauts. "Did she stay back at NERV again?"

"She did." Rei whispered back, clasping one of his hands with hers. "She reported that she was working on a new project concerning the AT Field."

"She was having a bad day with the synchronization tests." He remarked, a note of worry creeping into his voice. "She was several points down from her usual score."

"Her performance today was sub-standard, compared to her past tests," she agreed. "She is preoccupied with something, and her lack of focus is detrimental to her performance. The Evangelions require total dedication and concentration. If one is distracted, one will not perform adequately." She paused, thinking about the other girl's rants in the locker room. "She is not interested in hearing this however."

"I don't think that she's happy that my scores keep creeping up. It's like she takes it personally."

"She wants to be the best, the most accomplished, the standard by which all others are judged. It is what she had built her life around. It is easier to be the best when one is the only one competing. She is not used to having competition, not used to having to share the responsibility of piloting with others."

"But you've been a pilot as long as she has! Doesn't that count?"

"Most of my time as the pilot of Unit-00 was in the capacity of a test pilot, a mere component to ensure that the synchronization systems worked. She has had a much more active role in the development of the systems of Unit-02, and was originally designated as the main combat pilot. Unit-00 and I were originally never meant for combat. From the very beginning, she has anticipated being the only warrior-pilot, as the Marduk Institute has been unable to locate suitable candidates, and as the development and construction of the Evangelions is extremely expensive. Now she is less certain as to her role, as all three of us share the burden of safeguarding humanity."

"Somehow, I don't see Asuka as ever being uncertain or unfocused." Shinji said, thinking about the surety of purpose the girl seemed to exude in everything she did. "I mean, she knows what she wants, even if she doesn't get it all the time." He paused for a moment, shifting around on the couch into a more comfortable position. "She does concentrate on a lot of different things, I guess. She has a lot of projects that she's trying to work on, and she's always adding some new thing that she wants to look into or test out to that list. She was just complaining about it today in class that she had too much to do to be wasting her time relearning algebra." He rubbed his hand across the flat of her stomach, his index finger tracing a circle around her belly button. He could feel her heart quicken in her chest as she repositioned herself atop of him, running her fingers through his hair, before stopping momentarily as another scientific inaccuracy was portrayed on the screen. "What's wrong now?" he asked a little mischievously, knowing that movie studio inaccuracies were a sore spot for his girlfriend. Rei did not get wound up about very much, but the liberties that Hollywood took with reality were often one of them. It was their little game when they watched movies, taking note and cataloging the mistakes. Most cinema held no interest for Rei, who would largely ignore the films they watched, much more interested in Shinji, but when watching science fiction films she found herself unable to tear herself away from trying to correct the scientific fallacies. Her boyfriend's hands would have to wander farther than her stomach to get her attention, but that wasn't likely to happen with their commanding officer home.

"In space, there is no sound. No matter how hard they are shouting at one another, they would never be able to communicate that way."

Both teenagers quieted down as Misato walked back into the room, slamming the phone down onto the cradle. "That woman is so annoying," she complained, shaking her head. "Just like I remember from Germany. Pushy and short-tempered." She turned around and grinned at the pair, the boy watching her with slightly nervous eyes, and the girl still watching the movie, uninterested in what the older woman thought about their activities. She winked at him and went back to her room to continue her search, pausing to call back to them. "Hey, tomorrow after the tests, I need to show you three something. Don't make any plans that can't be postponed!"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji sank to his knees, clutching at his head and vomiting across the floor. Rei rushed over to him, ignoring the vast goddess that hung up on the giant cross, concern writ across her face. Asuka stared in open mouthed shock at Lilith, unable to tear her eyes from the pale white body that terminated just below the bloated belly, leaking LCL down into the vast pool below it. She somewhat resembled a human, albeit the fat, pregnant mother goddess worshiped in ancient times, the fertility goddess, the moon goddess. Her face was hidden behind a mask of purple metal, seven eyes painted on it. No hair grew on Her head, or anywhere else that they could see. The sack of her womb, heavy with child, extended below the torn flesh of her midsection. Movement could be seen periodically, faint kicks from the unborn within.

The five people before Her could tell that She was aware of them, a sort of crushing presence bearing down on them, the head moving to track their movements inside Heaven's Gate. Ritsuko had been against showing them Lilith, and had called Gendo; but he said that if Sub-Commander Katsuragi thought it was a good idea, then so be it. Both women had warned the pilots that the experience would be intense, based off of their own first exposures to the Mother of Mankind. Shinji was taking it badly, but Rei was fine and Asuka was reacting better than the adults had.

Rei could hear Her voice in her mind, not at all unlike those of the Evangelions, but it was overpowering. It was the chorus of a thousand singing voices, terrifying and awe-inspiring all at once, a thunderous susurration. Helping Shinji back out of the vast room, she shot a glance back at the others. This was far from the first time that she had stood before the crucified Angel, but she doubted that the Sub-Commander knew that. The Commander had revealed much to the woman upon her promotion, but there were still large areas of NERV's past and future that the woman remained in the dark about. Just as she was about to cross the threshold of the shielded room, a single voice sounded in her mind.

**COME BACK TO ME, CHILD. I HAVE THE ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS YOU DO NOT ASK.**

Rei winced at the pain of the mental contact, but it was gone the moment they crossed the gate and left the Chamber of Guf, Shinji immediately straightening up, like a weight had been lifted from him. He took deep, ragged breaths, gulping in air like a drowned man.

"That's what draws the Angels?" he asked in between breaths, staring back at the door. "That's what brings them here?" Unsure how to answer him, she helped him sit down against the wall, sitting next to him, holding his hand. "What was it like, Rei?" he asked, staring off into space, his eyes dilated. "I could hear Her, screaming at me, overwhelming, terrifying…"

"It was unsettling," she agreed, squeezing his hand. "The Second Angel, after ADAM."

"The one that if the Angels reach, to merge with and to be completed, and so trigger Third Impact." Ritsuko said from the doorway, watching the pair. She smiled at the boy. "I threw up the first time I saw Her too. Don't feel bad about it Shinji. It gets easier each time." She knelt down in front of him, taking his pulse and checking his eyes, ignoring the quiet, icy outrage that radiated from the blue haired girl sitting next to him.

"So if that's what causes Third Impact, what we're trying to prevent," Asuka asked as she walked out of the room, a layer of sweat plastered over her face, "why haven't we killed it? It's an Angel, right? That's why we're here! That's our entire purpose for existing! That's why we made the Evangelions!"

"Because we think that would cause an Impact as well." Ritsuko answered with a sigh, standing up. Motioning at Rei to get Shinji back on his feet, she sealed the gateway after Misato exited. "Let's go someplace where we can sit down and have a snack, get your blood sugar levels up," she said as she turned to lead them away to the elevator. "ADAM and Lilith are more than just normal Angels. They are to the Angels as the Angels are to us, as far as we can tell. But Lilith is the source of all life on Earth. She is our mother, and ADAM and the rest of the Angels are interlopers, not meant to be here, but were drawn here nonetheless." She made a disgusted face. "Why this is so, I can't tell you. Misato's father suspected, apparently, but his theories, and research, died with him in Second Impact." She shot a sympathetic look at her friend. "Sorry, Misato."

"No worries," she replied breezily. "It's not like he didn't do it to himself. ADAM was in hibernation, asleep in Antarctica. My father was doing research and tests on ADAM, and something went wrong. When He woke up, they tried to kill Him, or at least put Him back to sleep. We think that's what caused the Second Impact."

Rei listened to them in silence, not commenting on the incompleteness of the line of events. The two officers obviously had been cleared to tell them this much, but the Commander obviously had not cleared the adults to reveal the existence of SEELE to the other pilots. She privately doubted the worth of even allowing them to know this much, as the incomplete truth and mix of lies was a tangled mess that could lead an intelligent and inquisitive mind to seek more information. If everything had been fine with them being in the dark about the truth, why change things? It could only make things more difficult later on. It was easier to make a sacrifice in ignorance than in knowledge. The Scenario did not require them to know what was going on. In fact, she doubted that the Scenario could even come to fruition properly if all of the parts knew the details of the truth surrounding them, NERV and the world.

She could tell that Asuka was already thinking about how this fit in with what she knew, putting things together. The Pilot-Captain was no fool, and even now was running into issues with getting what she thought she knew about the AT Fields to line up with what actually was happening inside the Entry Plugs. The fact that Shinji and Unit-01 were an abnormal case only added to the redhead's frustration. This new information about Impact and the Angels could only spark further trouble for the older girl. Rei foresaw numerous new complaints and rants from the Pilot-Captain in the locker-room both before and after their training exercises. It was not something that she looked forward to.

Rei tried to put Lilith's parting message from her mind. If she decided to act on it, it would be after a long conversation with Unit-00. Whatever pacts the Commander and SEELE had made with Her more than likely did not include offering to answer her unasked questions behind their backs. Lilith had never communicated directly with her before, and was largely silent and fickle when the Commander spoke to Her. All of that, however, could wait. Shinji was of immediate concern, and he seemed to be largely uncaring about the whole thing or the new web of lies and deceit that his exposure to the Mother of All meant. Lilith had to have said something to him, for him to be like this. She had taken interest in the boy, for some reason, and had extended Her voice to him, speaking to him alone.

There was a reason why Heaven's Gate existed, surrounding the Chamber of Guf deep inside Terminal Dogma, the lowest and deepest part of Absolute Dogma, wherein the darkest secrets of NERV were kept. It was a barrier against Lilith's AT Field, so strong that it pushed her soul into those of her children. Normal humans needed to build up a resistance to Her, multiple brief exposures to the Song of Souls to be able to stand before her for long. She supposedly was gentle to Her children, but Rei did not think that She had been gentle with Shinji. The multiple armored layers of Dogma kept the physic signal Lilith broadcasted to a whisper, protecting her children and luring the Angels to their doom. Even through the layers of natural shielding offered by the Geo-Front, the emanations of her mind and soul had infected the dreams of her children through the ages, leading them to record their visions of the past and future into the apocryphal documents that had eventually given birth to the Illuminati. Too much exposure at once to the minds of the Angels would lead to contamination, madness and eventually death. Lilith had risked Shinji's life with her strange, unwarranted and sudden focus on the boy. That alone guaranteed that she would visit the crucified goddess before long. Rei blinked and turned to the Sub-Commander, tuning back into the conversation. "Yes?"

Misato sighed, chalking up the girl's behavior to the exposure to Lilith. "I said that you should go ahead and take Shinji home. Make sure that he eats something. And you," she said, turning to Asuka, "are going to go home, too. Rest! No more work for tonight!" She grinned, clapping a hand down on Rei's shoulder, "Plus these two need a chaperone. You all need to rest up and recover and I want you to do that, not get frisky with each other."

Asuka groaned miserably, protesting the order, but Ritsuko lent her approval to the plan, telling the pilots that they should get some rest before going back to school the next day, and back to tests and training in the afternoon. Rei tuned them out, ignoring their chatter her attention on Shinji still wild eyed, a haunted look on his face as they left. She would see that he ate something and then went to bed, and then she would talk to her sister and see what she thought.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei hummed as she walked about her new lab, a large room that housed most of the machinery that maintained the tank of her clones. The large aquarium-like structure was brightly lit, the LCL transforming the light into a yellowish orange glow. As she worked, she had noticed that the clones nearest to the tank wall would follow her, their empty eyes and smiles chasing after her movements. It could have been taken as unsettling, had she not had firsthand knowledge that they were nothing more than empty shells, waiting to be born. They would never be born, however, never know life as more than her appendages.

She could give them simple instructions and they would obey, but the utility of this was somewhat limited. After a long enough period of time outside of the tank of LCL, they would break down, their bodies dying and falling apart, having no soul and no ego to hold them together. With some concentration, she could take direct control of the soulless bodies, seeing through their eyes and hearing through their ears. It had been disorienting at first to see and hear through two bodies at once, but with the aggressive set of experiments she had organized, it soon was as natural to her as synchronization with Unit-00. The ability to use two bodies at once had been of great use when dealing with her brother, allowing her to remove him from the battlefield while still appearing to be in school. It also afforded her more time to work on other projects while keeping up the illusion of normalcy.

While it was unfortunate that the Commander could not yet know about the removal of SEELE's lynchpin, it was an integral part of her own plans. Once she could explain it to him, she had no doubt at all that he would approve. He prided himself on being flexible and able to improvise, adjusting the Scenario on the fly when needed. The Commander would of course also be proud that she saw a threat and removed it while furthering the aims of both his Scenario and her own near-term plans.

She bit her lip in concentration as she installed the final trigger control system into the shaft of the tactical lance, screwing in the last circuit board that would allow her to link up the atomic melee weapon to her Evangelion. It was important that this went without issue, as she would not be able to properly test the linkages before she had opportunity or need to actually utilize the weapon. Even with the assistance of the MAGI, she would not be able to keep such a test from being discovered. A missing Evangelion was the sort of thing that people would notice, and the use of the simulator rooms was not something that could be hidden.

Standing back, she inspected her work, going over the internal components with a critical eye. Nodding to herself, she plugged the diagnostic machine into the control circuit, and started the maintenance program. It had been appropriated from the pallet rifle warehouse, one of the systems used to check the weapons. The control systems were similar, and so should suffice to check her work. It was not as good as an actual field test, but it was all she would be able to do.

She walked over to the cart where a kettle of tea waited. After pouring herself a cup and taking a few measured sips, she sat down, watching her clones move about aimlessly in their tank, their empty smiles and eyes betraying the emptiness of their minds.

**WELL?**

Rei sighed. _What do you want?_ She mentally asked her sister, watching the clones shiver as they talked. While her sister had as yet been unable to take control of a clone, there was a definite reaction in the clones when they communicated through their telepathic link.

**Are you going to go talk to Lilith or not? She's offering answers to questions, and if I know you, which I do, you love getting answers to questions.**

_I am considering it. I have not yet made up my mind on if I am going to go or not. I do not think that she can be trusted. However, she must be made accountable for her rough treatment of Shinji._

**See, that's one of the things that are weird. We could feel everything once Heaven's Gate was opened, and Unit-02 said that Lilith was focused on the boy. She was all up and inside his tiny little braincase. She was interested in him, that's for sure. **

_She was what?_ Rei asked, shocked. The Angel had never spoken to her before, dealing directly with the Commander or whatever agent from SEELE that they had been directed to take before Her. Rei's presence was a shielding one, deflecting the overpowering crush away from the group due to her own Angelic heritage. Before they had developed her line, they had stood unshielded and unguarded, and the Commander had told her it had meant lost time to recover from each exposure. Shinji's reaction to being in Her presence was the worst that Rei had ever witnessed. While it had been obvious that Lilith had been interested in him, the fact that she had forcibly invaded Shinji's mind was news.

**She was interested in him, and came close to shucking his brain like an oyster. Unit-02 thinks that She was scared a little of him, at least at first. **Her sister went silent for a moment as Rei sipped her tea. **You couldn't tell? You were standing right there.**

_I was unable to discern anything. I can feel Her, of course, down there. But I cannot tell where or on whom Her attention is placed. _

**I was talking about how the poor boy looked and reacted. **Unit-00's voice was dry, her pointed statement causing her sister to blush, embarrassed.

_Sub-Commander Katsuragi went before Her without the benefit of my presence, and she was not incapacitated._ Rei protested, downing the rest of her cup.

**She also stood before ADAM, in all His terrible glory, there at the Second Impact. His presence is even stronger than Hers! Unlimited by the crucifixion, freshly released from the Lance? ADAM, the Destroyer, the Angel of Death? ADAM, the Angel of War? Of course the Sub-Commander wasn't terribly affected. He probably burned out the fear center in her brain. Your exposure to the nascent sliver of Him was terrifying enough, wasn't it? Can you imagine what it must have been like to have laid eyes on Him, that burning giant, the towering behemoth, terrible and glorious all at once?** Unit-00's tone put Rei in the mind of breathless reverence as she tried to describe the destructive god, released from his eons long slumber. It was obvious to Rei that her sister had been thinking about ADAM for a while. It was not unlike listening to Hikari talk about Toji.

_I have not spent much time wondering what it must have been like._ Rei commented, her tone as dry as Unit-00's had been earlier. _I have other things to occupy my mind and time with. I was under the impression that you were interested in Unit-01. Have you decided to give up on deciphering that mystery, of pursing it? I do not think that ADAM would be a viable alternative for your affections._

**Ha. Ha. Ha. I'm still working on it, but Unit-01 acts like a sleeping bear. Unresponsive, until I poke it enough, and then it's nothing but snarls and roaring anger. It's like there's nothing to its soul but instinct and base emotion. No signs of 'higher personality' or reasoning. I've tried watching them when they synchronize during tests, but it's hard to see where one begins and the other ends. They merge well, that's for sure. I think that's why he's so good even at lower levels of synchronization – it's an almost seamless joining of souls.**

_Does Unit-02 concur? She did a lot of work developing the synchronization systems. _

**She's not paying attention during tests, and only helps once in a while when we're offline. She has enough to worry about. She's having issues with her daughter, in case you missed that as well.** **Your time with the boy might be ruining your observational skills. She's been ignoring me most of the time, so if you want to ask her any questions, you'll have to come down here and enter Sheol through the Entry Plug. She might listen to you if you offer to relay a message to her daughter.**

_The Pilot-Captain has been displaying sub-standard results lately. I am unsure of how to help her within the confines of the Scenario. She has rebuffed most of the encouragement I have offered. She is not interested in my suggestions. I doubt that there is any message that might be relayed to her through me that would not spark further conflict within the Pilot-Captain. She will think that I am mocking her, or even if she accepts message for what it is, it will cause further issues, potentially with serious ramifications in the long term. She is as unaware of the truth behind Unit-02 as she is the parameters of her part in the Scenario. Anything that changes the first will change the second, which is not advantageous at this time. As it is, her death is not a requirement of the Scenario as is Shinji's or mine, left largely up to her own skills and experience as a pilot. In fact, it would be advantageous if she were to survive Third Impact, as she would be the only experienced Evangelion Pilot left, an undeniable force to help guide Mankind into the legacy that the Commander intends to bequeath them._

**She would like that, I'm sure. The only surviving Evangelion pilot of the Angel Wars, the one who shepherded the world into the shining promise of the future out of the darkness of Instrumentality? But she won't be able to do any of that if she keeps having problems during synchronization.**

_Has Unit-02 offered any insight as to the nature of the Pilot-Captain's issues? While I am unsure that there is much that I can do, it is still advantageous for us to have a strong pilot corps. If we fail, the Scenario fails, and that is an undesirable outcome. I will do what I am capable of in order to ensure that the Commander's Scenario comes to fruition. That is my mission, above all else._

**She hasn't given me any specifics, but whatever crisis her girl is going through is pretty serious. I'm sure that everything will work itself out eventually, though. I find it highly unlikely that the Commander would not have foreseen this in his calculations. But to get back to the original topic, when are you going to go talk to Her? Because you know that you will, even if it is to yell at Her over how She treated your boyfriend. We can't let something like that go without comment; it sets a bad precedent.**

Rei stood up and went to check on the diagnostic machine, thinking the whole thing over. Her sister, while being annoying about it, was correct. She was going to have to bring Lilith to account for Her actions. She had to be informed that just because she was the primordial mother of all life, she couldn't treat Shinji like that. Whether or not She paid attention or even understood remained to be seen, but the fact remained that She still needed to be told.

There was still more work to be done, however, before she could set aside the time to speak to Lilith. Besides, soon enough the Lance of Longinus would be in their possession, and the Commander planned on impaling the captive Angel with it, to further restrict Her power until the time came for him to make use of it. If nothing else, it would be an effective way to drive home her point when warning the Angel.

Content with her current plan, Rei continued her work on the tactical nuclear weapon, clones watching over her shoulder with empty giggles.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato wondered why it was that she hadn't merited her new office before, after proving her worth to NERV and Commander Ikari through the multiple engagements she had directed the pilots to victory in as she looked around the spacious room. It had been empty prior to her moving in, and so it wasn't like someone had been using it before she had been hired on as an actual NERV employee. The expansive room was high in the pyramid that sat above Central Dogma, with a wonderful view of the pristine forest and lake that covered a large piece of the open cavern of the Geo-Front. The Commander's office was only a few floors higher than hers.

Chalking it up to pettiness, she leaned back in the chair, sighing as she resumed going over the same stack of reports that she had seen the Commander pouring over almost constantly. Before, she had thought that it was just something he did to make people feel small and unimportant, to show them that he was a very busy man and that whatever it was they were bothering him with had better be important, but now she realized that he actually was a very busy man, that it was no act. The sheer amount of paperwork that he had to go through on a daily basis was astounding, she thought to herself, paging through the various reports from NERV stations across the world. The Commander, Misato realized now, was a very hands on sort of person, taking part in everything but somehow not micro-managing his global company.

It also explained a lot about him, and why, even as Rei's official guardian, it was Ritsuko who had been the girl's actual primary caregiver, even with as busy as the blond doctor was. It was amazing that the man managed to find the time to take dinner with the girl. Hell, she thought, it was amazing how he found the time to sleep. She was surprised that he hadn't shipped Shinji off before he had done so – taking the shambles of the German-Japanese GEHIRN Artificial Evolution Laboratories ("No One's Perfect, But We're Working On That.") and turning it into the multi-billion dollar R&D powerhouse that NERV ("God's In His Heaven, All's Right With The World.") became almost single-handedly had to have taken his full concentration. No wonder he had sent his son off. There would have been no time for him to take care of the boy, and at the time he had been running it alone, Sub-Commander Fuyutuski and Ritsuko not yet having entered the picture, the only person that might have been useful as a second in command being the original Doctor Akagi, but she was busy trying to keep the different research programs from falling apart as Doctor Soryu was over in Germany trying to figure out what it was that went wrong with the original Contact Experiment, only to eventually fail several months later. It took the Commander two years to send his young son away, and devoted his full being into his work. NERV's star had risen astronomically then, continuing on the original lines of effort of GEHIRN, eventually help pull the planet back onto track, getting the average quality of life for the world's population to one comparable with a Pre-Impact second world nation. Despite several continuing setbacks to the Evangelion project, it continued on unabated.

Paging through the report from NERV-Las Vegas, she wondered if Shinji ever thought about the entirety of his father's work. She sure hadn't before she had to read the paperwork that it generated. The Evangelion project, while being the main priority of NERV, was not the only project being worked on by the army of scientists that worked for the man. Space travel was not a priority of the Post-Impact Earth, but NERV-Oslo and NERV-Stockholm were working on interplanetary and interstellar travel, looking to spread mankind throughout the galaxy. NERV-Sydney was focused on intergalactic research. Shaking her head, she scanned the reports. He hadn't taken the title of 'Supreme Commander of NERV' for nothing. If anything, the title was understated, especially when taking his supremely ambitious plans and goals into account.

It also threw into a new, sobering light the range of duties that she would be expected to take on. He had said that they would ease her into the role of Sub-Commander, but as she looked over the reports from across the globe, from other Sub-Commanders, each responsible for entire regions and several NERV installations, the weight of responsibility started to add up on her shoulders, and she imagined that she could feel it physically. She wondered how long the salvage operation was going to take, hoping that it would not take much longer. She would be happy when all she had to worry about was dealing with the pilots and Evangelion Operations.

Frowning, she scrolled back up the report, rereading a section where it spoke about interstellar travel using the Evangelions. While interesting in its own right, and somewhat upsetting that Ikari was surely planning on keeping his son bound to NERV, it was a curious turn of phrase in the otherwise technical report that had caught her eye.

"_While structural integrity of the entire Evangelion is important, (see IIR 3110 – 345 for V-Type equipment specs) the Entry Plug, the Throne of the Soul, must remain inviolate throughout the journey. After the successful collapse of the Ego-Border, the disembodied Pilot will be consumed into the LCL, and the recovery operation will stand a higher chance of success if the LCL remains unpolluted and the total volume is available, although in theory it is possible to salvage the Pilot from a much reduced sample of LCL. Unaffected by entropy, LCL -"_

Setting the tablet down, Misato rubbed her eyes. While her degree was in astrophysics, and not being as dumb as Ritsuko often made her out to be (which was annoying, seeing how she was the blonde), none of that made any sense to her. Even ignoring for a moment the bit about LCL being unaffected by entropy and the laws of thermodynamics, what on earth was Doctor Ingolsson going on about the Entry Plug being the Throne of the Soul? And what did he mean about the collapse of the Ego-Border? Disembodied Pilots?

Somehow, she thought as she massaged her temples, she wasn't supposed to have gotten this particular report. Very few people should have been allowed to see this, she suspected. Suddenly, nothing was making sense, and all the headway that she had thought she had been making in her new job was suddenly lost. She was going to have to dust off those research skills and put them and her new security clearance to work, and make the most of the free reign she had on the massive amounts of data coming across her desk while she was the one in charge in the Geo-Front.

Misato hated to admit it, but now she was hoping that the salvage operation was going to take longer than previously expected. A lot longer, in fact.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

The Ruined Sea, Kozo thought to himself, was quite the appellation for the remains of the Antarctic. The southern pole was no longer dominated by the vast continent of ice, and the warm waters were a constant source of typhoons, hurricanes and monsoons. It had taken centuries, millennia even, for the waters to grow cold and freeze, but in one moment ADAM had undone it all. ADAM, and the folly and hubris of Man, as Gendo was quick to point out.

Gendo was silent was they watched the rolling waves of the turbulent, radioactive waters, lost in his own thoughts until the silence was too much for even him. "This is the true Dead Sea. A fitting monument to Man's folly for placing his faith in other things and higher powers. God died here, that day. God died here, and in his last breath he cursed this place."

"We are still here, Gendo. Surely there is something to be said for that." Kozo was feeling a little seasick, and was in no mood to put up with his friend's melodramatic side.

"We are here because of our own dogged persistence in clinging to life. In science we clung to, and it is that which has saved us, and will allow us to climb out of this hell." Gendo sneered at the winds and waves beyond the window. "Man wanted to become God, to supplant Him and usurp His place in Heaven."

Kozo chuckled at his friend, ignoring the man's black mood. He always got this way when ruminating on the past, and it was made worse by actually being back here in the Antarctic. "And through science you have created weapons with which to destroy His children and place yourself at the head of the Tree of Sephiroth. And yet, the First Angel lives within you, a higher power using you as an incubator. And it is your faith in your own son that drives you to do all of this. You cannot tell me that the irony is lost on you."

Gendo flexed his hand at the mention of the implanted embryo. It had started to grow, and he could feel its tendrils creeping up and through the muscle of his arm. His hand still refused to regrow the skin that had been removed during the operation, but Doctor Akagi was certain that it would begin soon. "The irony is not lost on me, no." He frowned at his reflection before sighing in disgust. "Faith in my son is better than faith in ancient gods that allow their children's very existence be threatened in such ways. He, at least, cares. He might not know that he does, but he cares nonetheless. Rei is the microcosm of Mankind, the last daughter of Lilith and Sister to Man. When she is in danger, he acts. When she is threatened, he will take Unit-01 and destroy everything to make her safe." He grinned at the window, and then turned and grinned at his friend. "We hold the Gate, the Lock, and the Keys to Instrumentality." He turned back to window, watching the men in hazardous environment suits maneuvering the submersible recovery vehicles around on the deck of the aircraft carrier. "And soon we will have the only weapon capable of stopping us."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

In a darkened room, a collection of the most powerful men and women in the world assembled, meeting in the flesh and not through secure lines of communication. Old was not an appropriate descriptor for this assembly. They were not old. They were not ancient. No, these men and women were venerable. They represented centuries of power, the ancient aristocracy of the world. They represented the rich, money both old and new. They were the products of the family lines that stood on the shoulders, backs and bloody bodies of countless millions across the history of mankind. They were the ones behind the thrones of the world, the ones who truly played the so called sport of kings. Armies and nations were their pieces, and the world their game board. Their whims were law.

They were SEELE, the ancient cabal of rulers and learned ones, the Illuminati. They did not meet in person often, and when they did, it did not bode well for the people of the world. They were also angry. Tabris' stunt had cost them, and while they had been dealing with the mess their pet Angel had caused, Gendo Ikari had located the Lance and was currently overseeing its recovery. This was not in accordance with their Scenario. They were supposed to be the ones in possession of the Lance, using the threat that it represented to keep Gendo and his pieces in check. That the man who had taken up the reins of Instrumentality was going to hold the weapon that had laid ADAM low was intolerable, and the assembled men and women were bitterly complaining about it to Kiel, their leader, as if he didn't know it already.

Lorenz Kiel, however, was already employing his resources to help counter the new threat. He held up a wizened hand, commanding their silence.

"My men have already begun to take steps to counter this new move of Ikari's." His voice was cracked with age, but was strong and backed with iron. "We will let him do the heavy lifting in this matter as we have let him in others. A new distraction is being created now, and while he is occupied with it, they will strike. He will not know that we were there."

"And how will your men manage this? Ikari jumps at shadows and sees our hand in all things. Nothing can happen that he did not cause that he will not attribute to us."

"He will not think that we delivered an Angel unto him, at least not yet."

"But Tabris is still missing! How will you send him on a mission when he has not even returned to us?"

"You cannot be thinking to trust the boy with anything now!"

The assembled congregation was outraged that Kiel might think to trust the impudent adolescent Angel with any manner of task so soon after the recent debacle, but the old man simply raised his hand again, cutting their protests off.

"It is not Tabris that I will send. As NERV prepares to upgrade their MAGI, they will receive a new Loyalty Core, but the organic matter that resides inside of it is not the synthetic human brain they expect; rather it is the brain from one of our Kaworu clones. Once installed into the MAGI, it will subvert their systems. We anticipate that Doctor Akagi will be able to deal with the rogue system before the day is out, however during this time our agent will strike." His grin became cold and cruel as he paused, watching their rapt attention. "Everything is under control."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

It was at three in the morning that Misato got the alarm, the panicked night crewmember almost screaming in terror as he pounded on her door, jolting her awake in her office, where she had fallen asleep while working. There had been no warning at all, she found out later, going over the initial reports of the attack. The Angel had appeared without warning, appearing in a low-earth orbit out over the Pacific. There had been a brief spike of energy as the Angel used its AT Field, and dropped a piece of itself into the ocean, releasing an equivalent amount of energy as an eleven ton bomb. The resulting tsunami had washed over the coasts of the pacific countries, and the death tolls were still being tallied.

The pilots were suited up and asleep, covering the couches in the ready room by the cages, waiting for the order to move out, security guards watching over them, drinking from bottomless pots of coffee. She of course had no such luxury, even when she wasn't in control of the city. The only difference now was that whatever plan she came up with needed no higher authorization than her own, even if the Angel's AT Field wasn't disrupting their communications, keeping her from checking in with the two men who outranked her. It was a pleasant freedom.

They watched in horror as the sensor net showed a massive spike of Blue Pattern spectra around the Angel, its AT Field waveform changing and flowing across the screen like oil over water. A large segment of its elongated body separated from the main mass, dropping away to plummet towards the waters below, the brightly colored flesh becoming opaque, already decaying now that it was outside the Angel's morphogenic field, where the laws of physics and causality did not apply in the environment the Angel created for itself.

When Ritsuko spoke up, her voice was tight and angry. "It's guiding itself. It's dropping mass to adjust its course." Staring up at the screen, she typed away on a keypad, calling up the slight changes in the path it had taken. "It's steering," she seethed, grinding her teeth.

Misato looked over the course alterations from the original path that was laid out. "Steering towards us. Towards Tokyo-3."

"Makes sense." Maya added softly, her face wet with tears. "They always come to us."

"Well, let them come." Misato growled. "Options, people! What are our options? Where are we on getting comms back up?"

"TACSAT is still down. Tight band radio is still down. We've managed to get VOIP to the JSSDF Headquarters."

"Are they offering anything?"

"They want to know what we plan to do. The government is busy dealing with the tsunami, and they say that they've been ordered to only move in if we fail."

"What are our long range assets? It's still a good ways away."

"Not many." Ritsuko interjected. "We've always depended on the UN and its member nations for long range projection. It won't be within our reach for another four hours, and even then it's regular artillery and some surface to air missiles."

"Which will be worthless against it, anyways." Misato finished her friend's statement. "How many more drops will it have to do to put it on line with us?"

Maya looked up from her terminal. "I'm having the MAGI run the projections now, but I think it'll be no more than seven, based on the time interval between the two and the amount adjusted."

"Alright. Someone get back on the line with the JSSDF and have them get word out that we can expect about seven more waves like these first two. Get people away from the coasts, or at least prepared for them. Can we figure out what it's liable to do once it's over us? It doesn't look like it's built for hand to hand combat. Do we think that it has an energy beam like the Fifth Angel?"

"We're running that analysis right now as well, but it's jamming our sensors as well as our communications. It used its AT Field to destroy our geo-stationary satellites, and it will be about an hour before the nearest ones in free orbit come over the horizon."

"So it's a waiting game, then." Misato said disgustedly, her eyes still on the screen and the huge Angel, watching the bizarrely shaped bulk. "The type of game that I hate the most."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka alternated staring at Misato and watching her heads up display, dismay and disgust written all over her expressive face. She was obviously not pleased with the plan that the woman had enthusiastically detailed to them. Rei and Shinji found themselves in complete agreement with their Pilot-Captain, each having several issues with the plan, but were staying silent, letting the volatile girl speak for them. She was, after all, very good at expressing her feelings.

"This plan is absolute geisteskrank! Firstly, how can you not know where something that big is going to land? Secondly, you expect us to catch it? Misato, bist du vollkommen irre geworden?"

"Firstly, Asuka, that's rude. Secondly, yes, I expect you to catch it."

"Misato, even using our AT Fields to shunt off and redirect the Angel's kinetic energy is going to need all three of us! No one has the synch ratio to let them do it by themselves! Not even Shinji could do it!"

"I know that Asuka." Misato said patiently. "That's why you're going to have to work together like always."

"What do you mean together like always?" Asuka spit back, seething anger in her voice. "This is the first operation using all of us that we didn't just throw together on the fly!"

"Just trust me, okay? And trust each other."

"Oh I don't have any issues trusting Wondergirl and the Third!" Asuka retorted caustically. "I just don't trust the idea of one of us trying to catch an Angel by ourselves, waiting for the others to run over to us quick enough. There are limits to what's possible, you know."

Shinji tuned out the rest of their argument as he watched the huge Angel that filled the sky hurtling closer and closer, the numbers on his display spinning down as the link showed the MAGI's desperate race to finish plotting the trajectory before it was too close to do anything about it.

Another part of the segmented body detached, launching away from the main body. It took the computers a few seconds to plot its course, the blob of flesh tracing down towards Asuka.

"Oh, you kackfreches Arschloch!" Asuka shrieked at the Angel, already in motion, moving to catch it in her AT Field. "Rei, Shinji, move your asses! I'll catch up after dealing with this!" She called to the other pilots, throwing her AT Field up into the air, making it into a net.

Neither Shinji nor Rei answered her, each kicking into motion, streaking towards the small plot of land the MAGI designated as the epicenter of the Angel's target area. It was just on the border of their respective regions, almost equidistant between them.

His heart pounding in his chest, he tore across the cityscape, desperately racing towards the Angel. The city had been locked into a modified battle configuration hours ago, the towering skyscrapers and weapons buildings locked underground, leaving only the shorter buildings above ground. The squat armored blocks did not even come up to the knees of the Evangelions, and were no obstacles to the pilots as they ran. Shinji's pulse jumped up as his synchronization score ticked up three points, and a warning flashed on Lieutenant Ibuki's computer screen, warning that the pilot of Unit-01 was entering the estimated secondary danger zone. Before the technician could notice it, the MAGI countered the alert and disabled the monitoring program.

A warning flashed in the corner of his eye, the on board system letting him know that his umbilical cable was running out. He gave it a few more strides before popping it from his back, swallowing down bile as his battery timer kicked on, the numbers racing down as he pushed himself harder, still a good distance from his target. His synchronization score leapt up by five points, a massive gain. Sparing a quick glance at the map, his heart sank as he saw that Rei was even farther away from the Angel as he was, and that Asuka was only just now moving towards them, the chunk of Angel-flesh carefully placed on the ground, already melting into viscous goo. They weren't going to reach it in time. Everything they had done, it was all going to be for nothing, all because he was too far away from the Angel. The faces of his friends from school flashed across his eyes, quickly followed by those of the technicians he knew at NERV, followed by a parade of the black suited Section-2 men and women, segueing into scenes at home with Misato and Asuka, finished up with every moment he had spent with Rei. Everything, everyone, would be gone because he had failed them, because he would not make it to the Angel in time.

Glaring, he leaned forward in his Entry Plug, pushing against the control yoke with all his might, willing his behemoth to move even faster as he felt the urge to scream begin to well up deep in his heart. He leaped into the air over a sports stadium, feeling the burn of exertion in his midsection as he landed in midstride, kicking a deep gouge into the street below, chunks of concrete ripped up and thrown behind him as Unit-01 started to become a purple blur. Still the mocking red numerals continued their frantic race down to zero, ignoring his growing anger, not caring that the inadequate battery life was going to cost the pilot everything in his life.

Shinji bared his teeth, his lips drawn back in an angry snarl, the weariness of exertion from trying to force a dying giant to move dying as his rage boiled over, unwilling and unable to accept that his foe remained out of reach. The moment that Shinji became the Berserker his eyes dilated, becoming little more than dark pools of inky black surrounded by the barest sliver of blue, before his pupils shrank down to dark pinpoints in twin fields of blue. His limbs no longer felt like lead weights, and he could move freely now, a new lightness settling down around him like a comforting blanket. The three supercomputers watched with detached interest and outright glee as the boy's synchronization rate skyrocketed to an infinite ratio. There was a deep whining noise as the Entry Plug attempted to lower the Throne of Soul deeper into the Evangelion's core, the physical restraints and blocks resisting the automated systems.

Rei and Unit-00 faltered momentarily as they saw the shockwave behind Unit-01 as it launched itself into the sky, the extended senses of the Evangelion seeing the waves of energy warping around the flying titan as he broke the sound barrier, the sonic boom shattering windows throughout the city. Asuka's jaw dropped, incredulous and incoherent noises sputtering out of the girl. Alarms began to sound in Central Dogma, and deep below in Terminal Dogma, past Heaven's Gate, Lilith raised Her head to the ceiling, watching the unfolding scene past the layers of armor and human city. Tears of LCL leaked out from under the viridian mask as the primordial being wept.

Fire traced across the sky behind Unit-01 as he flew, orange flames wreathed around him paradoxically ignoring the thick lines of frost that were rapidly spreading across the purple armor. Arms reaching up for his enemy, there was flash of light that spread from his fists out toward the Angel as the Berserker's AT Field flared into life, a smooth knife blade of yellow hexagons racing ahead of him as he plowed through the Angel. The Berserker threw back his head, the victorious howl of rage ripping forth from his mouth and Unit-01's as the Angel disintegrated around him, the red orb of the core impaled on the Evangelion's horn, bleeding liquid fire at the entry and exit wounds.

Jumping off his own AT Field, Unit-01 did a triple axel through the air, coming down to land serenely on its feet, arms thrust up to the sky in joyous celebration, the blood of the Angel still showering down upon it in a deluge.

The core detonated, knocking the titan to the ground, sending the raging pilot into unconsciousness. There was a moment of silence inside the command room as the current group of alarms switched off and a new set began, this time letting them know that the pilot was in need of emergency recovery instead of his Evangelion being in a berserker state. The astonished men and women kicked themselves back into action, trying to get a handle on things and preparing for damage control and cleanup.

Finally reaching her beloved, Rei dragged Unit-01 out from underneath the pillar of fire, the helmet's face blackened and warped, melted by the intense heat of the blast. It was frightening, the way that the face of Unit-01 now somewhat resembled the one painted on its shoulders, the armor recast in the fire of the Angel's death and tempered in its blood.

Unit-00 looked up from where it kneeled by the fallen Evangelion's side as the crimson chariot of the Pilot-Captain approached, the four viridian eyes of their leader trained on the sleeping warrior. With a shrug and a shake of its head, Unit-02 reached down to help the white cyclops pick up their comatose companion, carrying him to the nearest lift gate.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka took a deep breath, steeling herself for what was to come, telling herself that it wasn't as bad as Doctor Akagi had told them about it before. Opening the small human sized door set into the armored wall, she passed through Heaven's Gate into the Chamber of Guf. Wincing at the crush of Lilith's presence, she quickly crossed over the catwalk to stand before the crucified Angel. She looked up at Her, staring at the impassive mask that turned to watch her movements inside the cavernous room.

"Well, I'm here." She said, the words spilling out in a rush, crossing her arms. She refused to show any deference or prostrate herself before the ancient being that was the ultimate source of all life on the planet. She was Asuka Langley Soryu, the Pilot-Captain of the 1st Evangelion Flight. She was a warrior and a scientist, and the premier guardian of the world. She was not impressed by the Angel, mother of the world or not. She had battled with Angels, defeated them and was baptized in their blood. Asuka Langley Soryu was mighty, strong and invincible, and she would not be cowed by anyone or anything. "You promised answers, so talk." She glared up at the impassive mask, as if daring the goddess to strike her down for her impertinence. "Tell me the secrets of Unit-01."

Author's Notes:

Tatsu-ZZmage: My mention of the 'Song of the Spheres was actually a reference to the Musica Universalis.

HonorBridge: My apologies for the numerous mishaps that occurred in the posting of Chapter 30. My internet connection is haphazard. As for Misato and Ritsuko sharing a hotel room, they were still at the UN Inquiry. Rei utilized a clone body to 'keep up appearances' when dealing with her brother, and yes, it does not bode well that she is making plans of her own.

Moonish Man: Unit-01 is now being referenced as a 'he'. The souls in Units 00 and 02 have been able to discern this. Also, I did mean infinite. :)

In future chapters, when I will be doing a flashback to past events, I will reverse the flow of the scene break. Hopefully this will help alleviate confusion.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier! - normal temporal progression

Vier, Drei, Zwei, Eins! - going backwards in time.


	32. Chapter 32

Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Proofread by Judicar Deimos

Some notes down at the bottom.

Note: _Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier! _indicates a scene change going forwards in time. _Vier, Drei, Zwei, Eins!_ indicates a scene change going backwards in time.

Asuka screamed incoherently as she vomited into the sink, blood pouring from her nose to join the contents of her stomach in the swirling water. Glad that she was alone in her lab, she rinsed out her mouth, still trying to puzzle out the mess of information that the Angel down in Terminal Dogma had given her. Idly, she wondered if it was like this for the first scientists who had found Her, if they had suffered as she currently was as she tried to decipher the jumbled images, sounds and feelings of the memories that the Angel and Mother of Mankind had implanted into her brain. Not for the first time in the week following her midnight trip to visit the Angel she regretted even considering taking up the offer, cursing her need to know. Wadding up a mess of tissues, she pressed it against her nose, trying to stem the flow of blood, cursing the frailty of human flesh. Returning to her chair, Asuka leaned back and closed her eyes, trying to sort out the memories that were not hers.

There was pain, anger and excitement. Adrenaline filled her, and she could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Flashes of tropic heat and arctic cold rolled across her, and her skin was covered in a sheen of sweat. Trembling, Asuka decided to give up on trying stopping the nosebleed, her hand dropping to hold onto the other armrest, her fingers white in a death grip around the upholstered arms.

She saw the Angels, formed from dust and flesh, fighting amongst themselves and against the Other, an incandescent giant of light and fire, a burning, raging titan that instilled fear and dread within her, an unreasoning terror that lived in the base of her skull. Whatever this giant was, it had frightened Lilith. Pandemonium reigned on the battlefield, and she wasn't sure what the sides were, or who was winning. As the fighting intensified the burning in her brain grew hotter and hotter, until the bright actinic flash of a nuclear blast overtook the fighting armies, a shock running through her body. But the terror and pain faded, the images racing though, incoherent and unintelligible, as if she was trying to watch a thousand different movies played at the same time, each vying for her attention, each a single strand in a Gordian Knot of sensory overload. Asuka felt her stomach heave, and she bolted for the sink again, bile and blood on her lips as her body and mind refused to assimilate the psychic gift that Lilith had given to her.

It would be a long time before she sought assistance from anyone else again, she thought darkly as she sprayed stomach acid all over the inside of the sink. This was not the first time that she had berated herself for taking the Angel up on Her offer, as whatever answers that might have been gleaned from the information given continued to elude her. It also highlighted to the teenager that the minds of the Angels were not at all like the minds of Man. The jumble of 'answers' Lilith had given her was useless. All of this time she had wasted trying to decode it would have been better spent working on her translation project, but each time that she tried to call it quits, there would be some niggling little tug at the edge of her mind, and she would try to sort it out again. She hated leaving things half done, and she couldn't stand leaving a project unfinished.

Rinsing out her mouth again, she stared at her hazy reflection in the glass cabinets. She looked like trash, dark bags underneath bloodshot eyes, her hair limp and lifeless, her complexion pale and wan. Running her hands through her long locks, she looked critically at the numerous split ends, frowning at the smell of dried LCL as it wafted through the air. She was going to have to spend a few hours in the shower tonight if she was going to be presentable at school on Monday, she decided, before wiping at the blood that was still oozing from her nose. Sighing, she shook her head, wondering if she could get away with skipping out on classes. Shinji was still comatose in the medical wing, and Rei hadn't left his side for a moment after they had pulled him from the Entry Plug. Misato was busy running NERV and the city, and Ritsuko and the rest of the tech teams were busy with the remains of the Angel, repairing Unit-01 and working on the upgrades to the MAGI.

It wasn't as if any of them would notice that she hadn't gone. Everyone was preoccupied with their own lives, and no one had any time for her. Even Ritsuko, who was usually a reasonable teacher, had told her that she didn't have the time or any tasks for her. The blond doctor was neck-deep in all three projects, and she was overseeing the medical doctors who were assigned to figuring out what was wrong with the Third. The medical and technical staffs were all worried about mental contamination from exposure to the Angel and from the sudden spikes in synchronization with the Evangelion. Asuka envied her mentor, wishing that she could juggle the numerous tasks imposed on her as the Section Head for Technical Section One, the Chairperson of Project E, and as the Chief Technological Officer of NERV. She had no doubts that in the future, with practice, she would be able to do the same, but for now it was hard enough to handle going to school and translating her textbooks, serving as the Pilot-Captain of the First Evangelion Flight, and working on the problems surrounding the AT Field and Unit-01. Her visit to Lilith was meant to make things easier, not harder. She giggled softly to herself, wondering what her teacher would make of the mental contact she had had with Lilith.

Straightening out her clothing and making sure that she hadn't spilled any body fluids on herself, she tied up her hair in a tight bun before leaving the laboratory. She would get some coffee and some snacks to rehydrate and refuel, and then she would get back to work on the large translation project. Going to class was a waste of time, now even more than before, as she had supremely important work to do. Her mastering of written and spoken Japanese was one of the reasons they had wanted her to go to school in the first place, and she was going to be working on that the rest of the time anyways. No need to go home to an empty apartment just to sit around and no need to go to class just to waste her time.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji woke up with a start, his eyes flying open, his ragged breath catching in his throat as he looked at the ceiling, the familiar lines of the main hospital wing sitting above him, darkened in shadow. Over the quiet beeping and chirps of the medical equipment, he could hear another familiar sound – the soft and even breathing of his sleeping girlfriend. Propping himself up on one elbow, he looked around the dimly lit room, and he smiled as he saw her, curled up in a chair, asleep. Wincing at the sudden stabbing pain in his head, he rubbed at his eyes. The sharp pains of the migraine headaches seemed to happen a lot after he entered the 'berserker' state that the others talked about, but they hadn't ever been this bad.

Collapsing back onto the bed, Shinji stared at the ceiling and wondered just how long he had been out this time. It seemed that whenever he ended up in the hospital he had been in a coma of some sort. He was doing better in his classes, but he couldn't afford to miss too much school if he was going to keep his grades up, and maintain his free time now that he actually wanted to use it. He couldn't remember what had happened during the fight, but it would probably return to him in his dreams later on. Pulling himself back up, he swung his legs out over the side of the bed, checking the connection of his leg to the implanted socket, making sure that it was secured. Pulling off the numerous sensors, he slid out of bed and stood up, relishing the slight wave of dizziness that accompanied standing upright.

Stretching, he moved quietly over to the small bathroom, running water over his face, staring at his reflection. He looked haggard, as he usually did after a stint in the hospital, and his hair was starting to get long and shaggy. Squinting into the mirror, Shinji turned his head from side to side, snorting a little to himself as he realized that his hair looked a little like Rei's. He would need to get a haircut soon, if he wanted to avoid teasing from his friends about looking like his girlfriend. There was a sliver of light in the main room, and he poked his head back out of the bathroom, and nodded at the nurse who had slipped in. She pointed back at the bed, making him shrug and nod apologetically, and moved back and sat down, allowing her to take his pulse and check his eyes.

"Do you know who you are?" she asked quietly, making a few notes on the clipboard.

"I am Shinji Ikari, Third Child, Pilot of Evangelion Unit-01." He whispered back to her. "I am the son of Commander Ikari and ward of Sub-Commander Katsuragi. I am the boyfriend of Pilot Rei Ayanami, and-"

"Alright, alright." She said, rolling her eyes. "That's enough of that, young man." She moved over to the medicine locker, and pulled out a pair of syringes and a few tablets. Shinji blushed as she worked, not sure where the sudden feeling of giddiness had come from. He certainly didn't usually feel this chipper or feisty after waking up from a coma. He held out his arm, wincing a little as she drew a small vial of blood, and then as she injected the medicine into his arm, feeling the burn of liquid fire race through his veins. She handed him the tablets and a cup of water, tucking the vial of dark red blood into a pocket as he swallowed the capsules. "Get some sleep, and Doctor Akagi will be here in the morning. Hit the alarm if you start feeling worse." She instructed him, moving back to the door, opening it silently. "Understand?"

He nodded back at her, rubbing at the small marks on his arm, looking at the dark tracery of his veins as the medicine made its way through him. He looked up again as the door clicked shut. Hopping off the bed again, he walked over to Rei's sleeping form, watching her for a few moments, before rubbing her shoulder, whispering her name. She continued to sleep, clearly exhausted, sending pangs through his heart. Deciding that the chair was an entirely unfitting place for her to sleep, he tried to scoop her up in his arms to move to the bed. It quickly became apparent that he wasn't going to be able to move her without waking her up by jostling her around, even if he wasn't exhausted from the ordeal of battle and the resulting coma. He looked around the room, wondering what he should do, when he saw the wheels on the bed.

Grinning, he unlocked them and wheeled the bed over to her chair, and maneuvered her up onto it before moving it back over to its normal spot. Climbing back in next to her, he pulled the thin sheets up over them as he hugged her close to him, burying his nose in her hair and sighing contentedly. She murmured something, shifting around in his arms, before settling down again.

Drifting off into normal sleep, Shinji smiled, at ease despite the pains in his head and arm. Rei was safe, and here, and that was all that mattered.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Unit-01 flew through the air, frost and fire tracing after it, eyes glowing with malevolent light, its jaw forcing apart the restraints that kept it clamped shut to scream freely as it closed with the Angel, which had started to draw backwards, trying to escape the terror that came for it. It was slight and almost unnoticeable, but Gendo Ikari, the Supreme Commander of NERV, had something of an eye for the small details. He paused the recording and tapped the screen with a finger, turning to his friend.

"It was afraid. It tried to withdraw, to escape. It knew, in that moment that it was doomed." Gendo leaned back in his seat and tented his hands, trying to think. "Not until the moment that he entered the berserker state did it fear the three shadows below it."

"Things are moving as you have foreseen, and now you have the Lance." Kozo replied, staring out the window at the ocean as the ship made its way back to Japan at full speed. "The game board is unfolding as you planned, and SEELE is moving their pieces in accordance with your wishes. The Scenario endures, and while changed, continues unabated. We always suspected that the Angels were aware, that they were not mindless beasts. Confirmation changes nothing." The older man paused in his ruminations before turning to look at the ascending Evangelion. "If there was ever something for them to fear, it would be Unit-01. Born of Lilith, the anti-thesis to ADAM, the Guardian of Mankind."

"The Ultimate Weapon." Gendo agreed, deep in thought. "Culled from Lilith's lower half, reshaped by our science and technology, whereas the other Evangelions were born from the samples taken from ADAM before Second Impact. They are mere shadows of their kin, but together, with human souls, they can and will triumph over the Angels. The Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, joined with the Fruit of the Tree of Life, ADAM, countering and removing Lilith. Lilith, countering and removing ADAM. When the Chamber of Guf stands empty, and the Gate of Heaven is thrown open, the way to KADMON is revealed." Gendo recited tonelessly, his eyes never moving from the fire-wreathed form of his son. "The Instrumentality of Man. The over-soul, the cosmic being. The gestalt of mankind, ruled over by the Illuminati." He paused, and then sneered. "The joy of rebirth through the pain of death. Utter foolishness."

"And yet you place yourself at the position of keter in the Tree of Sephiroth in your office." Kozo chuckled. "A not so subtle barb at our masters, one that they cannot help but notice."

"They expect treachery from me, from NERV. I show them what they want to see, and they look no further."

"If they knew the extent of our true treachery, they would kill us all." Kozo agreed, a worried look creasing his face. "As it stands, we have, what, five left to come, according to the scrolls?"

"Yes." Gendo muttered, before repeating himself. "Yes. Six left, according to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Nine, according to the Sarnath Etchings. Fifteen, if the Viking Runestones are to be believed, the number of both the Scrolls and the Etchings together. Eight, if we believe the Mayans, and according the Egyptian Book of the Dead, we should have already come to Instrumentality, Ra's chariot come down from the heavens to wrap us all in fire."

"Truly, a worrisome mess of things. They all have been correct about some past events, and incorrect concerning others. What are we to believe, and what shall we distrust?"

"I shall trust in the works of Man, in fruits of our labors. We will stand ready to take on all who presume to bring about our end. Five, nine, fourteen, I care not if there are thousands more to come. I will leave you a force, inexorable and unconquerable, with which to take us from the cradle of the Earth to claim the Heavens for our own. The AT Field will be sword, shield and plowshare."

"But until we are ready to trigger Third Impact, we still need to deal with the limitations imposed on us. Your son, I fear, is rapidly becoming a loose cannon. We need him to be controllable in combat, malleable to our will. A berserker is a liability for both sides." The older man shifted in his seat, uncomfortable with having to bring the subject up with his friend. "Each time he descends into madness and blood-lust, it takes its toll on his mind and soul. Each time it gets harder and harder for him to return. The further that he synchronizes with Unit-01, the less protection he has. Soon the effects will be physical as well."

Gendo leaned back in his own seat, inscrutability settling over him like a cloak. "I agree completely, save for one thing. He's not descending into madness," he corrected his teacher, tenting his fingers together. "He's waking up." He grinned behind his hands, unseen by Kozo. "We'll be home soon. I'll speak with Doctor Akagi and see what we can do. We are almost past the event horizon. Soon there will be nothing that can stop what is to come, no matter how hard they might try."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Ritsuko looked up from her work as the other technician approached. He pointed towards the surface of the LCL-coolant mixture, and then mimed talking on the phone. She shook her head in disgust, and then handed him the sensor probe before swimming back up through the purple fluid to the catwalk high above.

Whomever it was that was calling her was important, because her crews knew not to bother her with nonsense when she was working. That unfortunately meant that whenever she was interrupted, she had to deal with it immediately. Whatever the importance of this phone call it probably wasn't as important as fixing Unit-01, but at the same time she was trying to take care of seven different things at once, three of them being things that only she could handle due to their sensitivity. The other four were spread out amongst her army of technicians and workers, but still required her attention. She was working herself and her crews to exhaustion, but still there was more that needed to be done.

Stripping off the fins from her feet, she left them next to her scuba equipment, pausing only to throw on her lab coat over the form fitting wetsuit she wore. Stalking over to the nearest system terminal, she grabbed the phone and punched in the pass code that connected her to the MAGI controlled operator bank.

"Doctor Akagi. Authorization code Forty-three Alpha One. Who's calling me?"

"Doctor Akagi, you have a phone call from Receiving Manager Naoto. The upgrade cores for the primary cogitators for Balthazar have arrived."

Sighing, she turned and looked back over the submerged form of Unit-01, where repair crews were swarming over the wounded giant trying to fix the largely self-inflicted damage. As important as the upgrades for the MAGI were, they were currently functional and Unit-01 wasn't, even if the boy had woken up and the last lingering symptoms had vanished late yesterday afternoon. A vital component to Unit-01, she had to make sure that he was protected from himself in battle as much as from the Angels. The physical restraints that kept the battle titan under control and the pilot safe from unlimited contact were damaged beyond all repair and had to be outright replaced. Then there was the mess that the Angel's core had made of the Evangelion's helmet and facial armor on top of the restraint systems. Large swaths of flesh had to be cut away in order to remove the melted metal, and the replacement parts were currently being sterilized in preparation for installation.

"Contact Lieutenant Ibuki and have her begin preparations for the initial installation. Let Naoto know that she'll be handling it, and that he'll need to sign the parts over to her." She paused, glancing around to make sure that none of the passing techs were paying any attention to her, before turning to face the wall, lowering her voice. "How is the image download proceeding? Any issues?"

"The image download is currently on schedule and will be complete in three hours. All systems read as normal, and no abnormalities or corruption is detected."

"Good. Call me an hour before the image is complete. How far out is the freighter?"

"Commander Ikari and the Lance are set to arrive in six hours. Unit-00 will be prepared to transport the Lance to the Chamber of Guf in five hours."

"How are the other pilots?"

"Pilot Ikari is currently in class, and appears to be completely recovered from the battle and his coma. He will be departing class early for the second CAT Scan this afternoon in the hospital wing. Pilot-Captain Soryu is currently sequestered in her laboratory, and is currently translating the technical documents concerning the AT Field into German. She is currently reviewing Doctor Ikari's research papers and comparing them with the technical specifications from the Mk. 5 Field Emitters."

"She's doing what?" Ritsuko asked, startled.

"She is attempting to isolate the nature of Pilot Ikari's abilities with the AT Field, and resolving the differences in design from Unit-01 and the other operational Evangelions. She wishes to understand his abilities and duplicate them in order to be more effective on the battlefield. However, most of the documentation on the AT Field is in Japanese. To aid her efforts, she is translating all available documents into German."

"Which one of you thought it was permissible to give her the system documents?" Ritsuko snapped at the super-computer. "Why didn't any of you bring this to my attention? Are you trying to cause a disaster?"

"We have taken the appropriate precautions, Doctor." Caspar sounded miffed, hurt that the blond scientist would doubt their ability to handle the situation appropriately. "All pertinent information has been removed, and incorrect equations and formulas have been inserted into the notes. Erroneous data was inserted to aid in the cover up. She will not be able to ascertain the truth, nor will she know why."

"She has a history of making modifications to Unit-02! What if she alters Unit-02 incorrectly? She could be killed!"

"Unauthorized modifications to the Evangelions are not permitted, Doctor."

"Of course they aren't permitted! That's what makes them unauthorized! Alert me the moment that she starts drawing up blueprints for anything. Hopefully she'll run them by me first." Ritsuko sighed. She hated the idea of having to sabotage the girl's research efforts, but there was no choice, no other option. Unfortunately there was no way that she would be able to convince the teenager to give up on the subject, as Shinji's abilities were highly visible and went against everything that was supposed to be able to happen. In hindsight, it was only natural that Asuka would pursue the answer to that particular question. In the future, she could be told the truth, but for now, there was no way that she would be able to accept or handle it.

She needed an outlet for her scientific curiosity, she needed focus and direction. What she needed to do was saddle her with something to occupy her time outside the crimson Evangelion, but Asuka was bright enough to be able to spot make-work. She would want something real to work on, some actual problem, but Tokyo-3 was not a 'public' research installation. It was geared around fighting Angels and keeping the Second Angel restrained. All projects here were more development than research, revolving around perfecting the proven components of the Evangelions instead of coming up with new systems.

In private, away from all other eyes, there were a few, secret systems being created. The so-called 'Dummy Plug', the auto pilot that today's image from Rei would form the basis for. The Armageddon Protocol, the ultimate of last ditch efforts, making weapons from the antimatter that they manufactured deep inside Terminal Dogma. The Rei line, of course, and the imaging machine. These projects were by necessity all hidden from everyone who was not working on them, and even then only a few people knew the scope of the entire project.

Maya certainly didn't know that the organic component of the Dummy Plug was one of Rei's clones, vivisected and cybernetically installed into the small addition that would eventually be installed in the Entry Plugs. Maya didn't even know that Rei had clones.

"Keep an eye on Asuka, and keep me informed on her progress." Hanging up the phone, she leaned against the wall, trying to think. Gendo would not be happy that Asuka was digging into his wife's work, nor would he be happy that the girl was capable of figuring out that she was being lied to and her efforts sabotaged. If she was going to keep Asuka on as a researcher and provisional tech, she would have to come up with something appropriately challenging and interesting to keep her occupied and out of places that she did not belong.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Floating in the tube of LCL, Rei relaxed as the machine scanned and copied her mind, creating a template for the auto-pilot that Doctor Akagi was making, and a backup for download into a clone to use in the future, should she perish.

Of course, the latter purpose was entirely superfluous, as she could shift her soul directly to a new clone. The Commander and the Doctor were unaware of this development, and while her current plans did not require her to keep this new ability a secret, neither did she benefit from revealing it just yet. She could always tell them later, and it cost her nothing to continue to make the regular backup scans.

The machine afforded her an entry into the twilight realm that she and the Evangelions had taken to calling Sheol, that endless train ride that looped around forever, bathed in perpetual sunset. If she desired to speak to Unit-02, or attempt to speak with Unit-01, she would otherwise have to go and sit within an installed Entry Plug. She could not often speak with the other Evangelions directly without drawing undue attention to herself. While her movements were as inscrutable and as ignored as they had always been, the Commander would notice eventually, and he would inquire as to the time that she spent in the Entry Plug.

Rei closed her eyes on the orange tinted imaging room, and when she opened them she looked around in the train car. It was empty, save for herself, this doorway into Sheol opening into a different car than when she sat in Unit-00. Standing up and smoothing out her skirt, she walked over to the door, seeing Unit-00 sitting down in her car. The cyclops looked up at her as she entered, nodding once in greeting.

**Hello, little sister. **

"The Lance is almost here. In a few hours we will be taking it to Lilith."

**And then we will bring her to account for her actions. **

"Yes. We will bring her to account for her actions, and warn her off from such behavior in the future." Rei paused, watching the still sitting Evangelion. "I require clarification on one thing, however. What is the nature of your interest in bringing Lilith to account? He is not yours."

The white and blue Evangelion shrugged. **He is yours and Unit-01 is mine. Any that would threaten them should be dealt with as we would any who threatened Father.** **We dealt with Tabris, did we not? I do not recall you having any qualms about enlisting my help then.**

"My query has nothing to do my having qualms. It was simply a request for more information." Rei looked past the windows, staring at the empty Geo-Front as they traveled. "If we are to make the most of the time available to us, we should go and visit Unit-01."

**He has been asleep since the fight. Nothing I have done has roused him from this sleep.**

"They are currently doing heavy repairs on Unit-01. It is likely that they have disconnected the power relays through several sections of the cybernetic components. This may result in a deeper 'sleep' than is usual. Shinji resumed conciseness within previously established normal parameters, with no unusual side effects. I find it unlikely that this stupor is a direct result of the battle."

The two sisters walked back into the empty car Rei had arrived in, and then into the car that belonged to the soul of Unit-01. True to Unit-00's word, the purple armored Evangelion lay sprawled out on the seats, devoid of any signs of life. It looked to be in perfect condition, quite unlike its physical self. It was interesting to note, the teenager thought to herself, that Unit-01's soul likewise was now adorned with the shoulder insignia, the bone mask of the Angels staring at her from over a pair of crossed bones. Neither of the other Evangelions were similarly marked.

Unit-00 poked at sleeping titan, unable to elicit a response. Rei watched, trying to assess how one went about checking the vital signs of the soul of an Evangelion. She herself did not breathe while in Sheol, nor did she feel her heart beat. Sitting down across the aisle from the two war machines, she silently regarded the pair, considering their options.

"The soul is still here in Sheol. If it had fled, or if had perished, it would not be here. It still resides in the Evangelion. Otherwise it would be empty, or a person, like the others."

**True…** Unit-00 agreed, looking over at her sister. In the seeming infinite train of cars that made up Sheol, past the ones that housed the souls of the Evangelions, and the new empty one that had appeared when Rei began using the imaging machine as a door into the twilight realm, there sat a sleeping woman, waiting for her child to be chosen as a pilot. Rei had walked amongst them for hours, until she had found Hikari's mother, recognizing the woman from the picture in small shrine in their home. She had whispered messages to the woman's slumbering soul, telling her about her daughters and her husband.

Rei had no idea if it had made a difference. There had been no reaction from the woman, locked away in Purgatory with the others, waiting for the day of Third Impact, wherein the Commander would release them from their bonds, just as he would release her from her own bonds.

She wondered if the others had ever visited Sheol, or if they even could. Unit-00 had never seen them, but her sister was not a vigilant observer. Unit-02 had never mentioned seeing her daughter, and neither Shinji nor the Pilot-Captain had ever spoken of this land of souls. Of course, it was not exactly something that Rei envisioned coming up in casual conversation. The train rattled as they passed over a junction, jostling the trio around.

Rei looked up as the crimson form of Unit-02 entered the car, the four viridian lenses flickering dimly. The Evangelion raised a hand in greeting before sitting down.

_**Hello, Rei. What brings you here? **_The Evangelion sounded tired and depressed, lacking the sense of purposeful direction the soul of Doctor Soryu normally had.

"I am currently providing an image for the auto-pilot system currently under development. Unit-00 requested my assistance with Unit-01." She turned to look back at her sister, who had moved Unit-01 to sit up. "I am unsure as to how to assist, as I am unable to ascertain the reason for Unit-01's lack of awareness."

Unit-01's soul is weary, and is resting. It will return to normal soon enough I suspect.

"Since we know that it is not Doctor Ikari that resides in Unit-01, have you made any headway in determining who it is that synchronizes with Shinji?"

_**I have been busy with other things these past months, and I'm not very interested in finding out who it is. It matters very little to me, other than the boy and Unit-01 can help ensure my Asuka's safety.**_ The Evangelion studied the girl sitting next to it. _**I know that this is not what you want to hear, but I don't really care. I cannot be there for her on the outside, but I am here for her in Unit-02. **_

_**Yui had always designed Unit-01 to be different, ignoring new and improved designs in accordance to the secret end that she had in mind. It is not surprising that it will synchronize another person's soul with her son's, but I don't think that it was her intent. Gendo probably had a hand in that.**_

"You still claim that you were not party to SEELE's plans for the future of Mankind?" Rei watched the outraged form of Unit-02 before continuing. "You were directly involved with the development of the Evangelions with Doctors Ikari, Akagi, and Fuyutuski. They were aware of the intended use of Unit-01 and the Evangelions."

_**I knew about the Angels! I knew that they would come to threaten our existence! I knew what it would take to defeat them, to ensure our safety! But I did not know about the planned genocide! If I had known that Yui had falsified her test data prior to her Contact Experiment, I wouldn't have used her data! I would have succeeded. I should have succeeded! But instead I sundered my soul, and left my daughter with a half empty shell.**_ Unit-02 stared out the window into the Geo-Front, sunk deep in melancholy. _**Gendo warned me not to conduct the experiment, but I didn't listen. He wanted to meet up in person before, but we were all so busy, and I wanted to provide a good working system. **_ _**She had to pay the price for my mistake then, and she's still paying it now. **_

The four sat in silence, Rei mulling over what Unit-02 had said, while the crimson Evangelion wallowed in unhappiness. Unit-00 watched the pair of them, as Unit-01 continued to sleep.

"What is the nature of Pilot-Captain Soryu's distress? Her performance has recently been below her previous scores."

She won't let me in. I don't know what's wrong with my little girl, and there's nothing I can do about it! I can't talk to her, because she won't come to Sheol, she can't come here!

"Have you actually made the attempt to speak with your daughter?" Rei asked, watching the Evangelion stiffen. "What efforts have you actually made to make contact? No matter how insurmountable the obstacle, it is necessary that one makes all attempts to overcome it. That is the reason for Mankind's continued existence in the face of the Angels. We do what we must, because we can. We will not accept defeat, as you appear to have in dealing with your daughter."

The four dimly lit lenses flared into brilliant, blinding light, bathing the entire car in green as Unit-02 stood up, towering over the sitting girl.

_**HOW DARE YOU! You, who are little more than a puppet of meat belonging to Gendo, you would preach to me of what must be done? What have you suffered, what have you sacrificed? DAS IST JA WOHL DIE HÖHE! You insolent snippet of a girl! **_Unit-02 backhanded Rei across the face, sending her sprawling on the floor.

With a warning snarl of anger, Unit-01 sprang to life, eyes glowing like bonfires, springing over Rei's prone form to tackle Unit-02. As the two behemoths began to fight, throwing punches and wrestling, Rei sat up, calmly scooting backwards away from the brawl.

"Unit-01 is awake again." She commented, watching the fight with her sister. "If you want to talk to Unit-01, you will most likely need to intercede before things escalate further."

Unit-00 turned to momentarily stare at Rei before diving into the altercation, trying to separate the two Evangelions, finally forcing them apart. Unit-02 looked at the white Evangelion holding Unit-01 up against the wall, muttering soothing words to the bestial giant, and then looked at Rei.

_**You planned that. **_

"I anticipated that." Rei corrected. "We had previously ascertained that Unit-01 is protective of me. I saw no other way for us to bring it back to wakefulness."

_**You truly are Gendo's daughter, aren't you? Your mouth is filled with his words, and you use people just as he does. You are more his child than his son is. **_Unit-02 looked back to where Unit-00 was struggling with Unit-01. _**Oh, calm down, whoever you are. She's not in any danger. **_

"My words are my own. Everything that I said was the truth." Rei watched Unit-01 growl at Unit-02 before sitting down, staring at them inscrutably behind it's armored mask. "I have sacrificed much, and I have much more that I will sacrifice. My death is demanded by the Scenario. The death of my love is demanded by the Scenario. The eternal exile of my father is demanded by the Scenario. This is my sacrifice. We will die so that the threat of Instrumentality can be removed for all time."

_**So you are content to be sacrificed on the altar with Ikari's son, so that Gendo's aims are achieved?**_

"That is why I was created. This is why I am. Using me, he will seize control of Impact and through it, create a new paradise for Mankind and ensure that it will remain safe for the rest of time. SEELE will be cast down and destroyed, and the threat of Instrumentality erased forevermore. ADAM's children will be destroyed, and the threat represented by Lilith removed. Mankind will stand, unconquerable, on its own feet and lay claim to the inheritance given to it by the Commander. No matter what the cost or consequence, intended or otherwise, it is our duty. The Scenario is to be fulfilled."

_**An ambitious plan, set in motion against equally ambitious men. **_Unit-02 sneered at the girl, ignoring the rumble emitted by Unit-01. _**And all it takes is the suffering and sacrifice of countless people, all pawns in their game.**_

"Our sacrifice is what will ensure the survival of Mankind. The end state is fixed, and this will end in one of three ways. There is the Commander's Impact, where Mankind endures. Death, at the hands of the Angels. Rebirth into eternal slavery as the gestalt being KADMON, ruled over by SEELE." Rei's eyes flashed with glowing light, red coals in an alabaster face as she recited the dogma that had been drilled into her throughout her life. "This is our mission; to fight to be free, to survive, to stand our ground and to ensure the immortality of Man. I know my role in Impact, and all that I can ask for is to spend what time there is for me here with the Commander's son. We will die, but we will be together. Your daughter may yet live to see the future, but not if her abilities falter due to problems with synchronization. Her death gains us nothing."

_**And what does her life gain you? What part does she play in your master's plans, you puppet?**_ Outrage emanated from Unit-02 in almost visible waves, the Evangelion trembling with barely restrained anger. _**What do you care, where does she fit into your formula, your equations? How does she serve your designs?**_

"The Pilot-Captain is a talented fighter and researcher. Her Science is undeniable, if unfocused. She is also…" Rei paused for a moment, the fire dying in her eyes, her Angelic heritage returning to its normal dormant state. "She is also my friend. I do not wish to see her perish needlessly. Shinji wishes to see no one perish, needlessly or otherwise." She stiffened, and looked up to the ceiling, her eyes unfocused. "I must go. My time in the machine is over."

Rei opened her eyes in time to watch the LCL draining out of the tube, and she began to cough up the liquid from her lungs, taking in deep breaths of cold air. Past the tube Doctor Akagi waited for her, a towel in one hand and a plugsuit in the other. As the tube retracted into the floor, she held the towel out first.

"The Lance will be here soon. Once it has been unloaded and brought here you will take it down to Terminal Dogma, and install it into Lilith."

"Yes, Doctor." Rei tonelessly agreed.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei kept her eyes on the crucified Angel as she stepped off the edge of the platform into the sea of LCL, slowly walking down the sloped ground until it leveled off, the waves of primordial ooze washing against Unit-00's midsection. She held the massive helix spear in both hands, the intertwined rods spreading out from the middle of the spear to terminate in two intensely sharp points, the blade edges so fine that they came down to a nanometer. It was the Lance of Longinus, the deicide. The years that it had spent buried in the plate shelf underwater had left no trace on it. It was not dulled in the slightest, looking new and unused. The two pronged spear, to pierce both body and soul, the only weapon known to destroy an AT Field.

It was the last missing piece of puzzle. With the Lance now in his possession, the Commander would be able to operate without fear of compromise. His Scenario would come to fulfillment, and nothing would be able to stand in his way.

He had won.

It was a glorious day for the Commander, Rei thought to herself, just as it was a great day for her. She would bring Lilith to task for her treatment of Shinji, in a manner that the Angel would not be able to ignore. The Angel knew what was about to happen, the deafening chorus of Her voice greatly diminished, sad and mournful.

_The boy Shinji Ikari is not of your concern. He is not yours to take and do with as you wish. You are the Mother of Mankind, and while I am the child of your flesh, I will not allow you to treat him in the manner that you have. He is my concern, and I will protect him from everything that would threaten him._

The masked face tracked her as she approached, offering no response, save Her silence, and two streaks of orange where Her tears trickled past the purple mask.

_The Commander's Scenario is nearing completion. Mankind will reign for all time, safe from the threat of Instrumentality or Impact. All that is required now is time for ADAM to mature, to be made ready for Ceremony of the Red Earth and the joining of Souls. Your covenant will be kept, your children will survive. _

_Shinji Ikari is not yours. He is mine. _

Unit-00 stood still before the Angel, staring up at masked face. Feet spread apart, Rei slid one hand down to the base of the spear, while gripping the point where the blades bisected with her other, rearing back, all weight shifted to her back leg as she lifted the lance overhead.

_The Lance of Longinus is yours. You may have it back._

Rei slammed the spear into the captive Angel, impaling the marble-white goddess just below her breasts, the blade points easily cutting through the AT Field that flashed into existence, plunging through flesh and sliding out the back of the massive cross. Lilith's head twisted violently, smacking against the top of the cross, before going slack and lolling forwards. Her hands twitched, straining against the massive nails in Her wrists, and the chamber became almost completely silent, Her voice now a mere whisper. Her womb erupted, a flood of LCL pouring down out of her to spray Unit-00, leaving Her looking like a ragged and torn puppet made of flesh.

**Suck it, Bitch!**

Rei blinked in surprise at her sister's addition to her message to the Angel, but then nodded in satisfaction. Lilith would be contained until the Commander was ready, and Shinji would remain safe from her as he would remain safe from all others who would seek to harm him. This was a great and glorious day indeed, but it was also a day of sorrow. She did not know how long it would take until the ADAM sample that had been implanted into the Commander to mature, but it would be time for the ceremony before too long.

Shinji was hers, and hers alone, but their time together was going to come to an end. She would have to make the most of what they had left.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka looked at the spherical shell that held the vat grown brain which would serve as one of the primary processing centers for the MAGI, a twinge of homesickness running through her. The GLaDOS systems were still highly controversial, despite being a proven technology. The first Doctor Akagi had been a pioneer in developing the first systems for wide spread use outside the original test systems that had run the labs at the small start-up which had managed the first break through in bio-computing. Previous iterations of the GLaDOS had involved using hive mind insects, such as ants and bees, before using brains from bodies donated to the cause of science.

Naoko Akagi, then working on her thesis, had sparked massive controversy when she managed to get the system up and running with the salvaged brains, forever changing the fields of neuro-science and computing. The insect driven computers had been more a 'for-fun' system, a curiosity to see if it could be made to work, which they had, after a fashion. Naoko's human brain driven system had not only work, it had blown all other super-computers away. The unforeseen side effect of the creation of the artificial intelligence had also been quite the surprise to the young researcher, but she had taken it in stride.

The GEHIRN Artificial Evolutionary Labs had purchased the small startup, the German company's first overseas holdings. In the years to come, the R&D company would become evenly split between the two nations, with representatives drawn from around the world. Its star would rise unabated until Second Impact, where a sizable amount of the company's resources and talent were lost when the Mountains of Madness, along with the rest of Antarctica, vanished.

Following the disaster of Second Impact and the subsequent losses of Doctors Ikari and Soryu, many in the technology fields believed that GEHIRN's star was caught in an irreversible spiral downwards. It was the largely forgotten GLaDOS systems that Doctor Gendo Ikari used to generate vast amounts of income to revitalize the company that he had seized the reins of. His own research had previously been sidelined as he took a more administrative role in the company, and despite the loss of his wife, the board of directors placed their trust in him to turn things around.

In the reshaped world of Post-Impact, the world economy was vastly different, with different demands and different supplies than before. As more and more automation was required to run cities and facilities due to the lack of manpower, trained or otherwise, supercomputers coupled with artificial intelligences became a hot commodity, one that the newly formed NERV had complete control over. While many people were still leery over the use of the GLaDOS system, none could argue its utility. Sales, upkeep and repair of the systems continued to be a primary source of income for the company, although many nations were now considering alternatives in the wake of the recent UN Inquiry into NERV's activities, motives and shadowy deals.

The vast majority of the units and component pieces were manufactured at NERV-Minsk and NERV-Moscow. The components delivered today came from an ancillary production plant at NERV-Dresden. A sticker with the red, black and gold flag of her homeland cheerfully waving in some imaginary breeze was plastered on one side of the hermetically sealed orb, and another, smaller sticker below it read **Hergestellt in Deutschland**, proclaiming the land of its origin.

"I didn't know that we made these in Germany." Asuka commented as she carefully peeled the flag from the sphere and attached it to the bottom of her tablet computer, smoothing it out. "I thought it was mostly mechanism parts that we manufactured. That, and administrative red tape."

NERV was headquartered in Japan, NERV-Central built beneath Tokyo-3, but NERV-Berlin, the old GEHIRN headquarters, remained an important administrative hub. Sub-Commander Weissman oversaw the administration of the NERV installations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. European staffers liked to joke that even though the company had shifted to a global setting, it retained the German name due to the amount of bureaucracy that Gendo would have needed to go through in order to change it to something else. That, and "Gendo Ikari's Death Legionaries for Hire, Research and Development Extra" didn't fit on the letterhead.

"Yes, we make GLaDOS components in Germany." Maya confirmed, studiously not looking at the teenager as she went down the checklist. She didn't know why Doctor Akagi had assigned her to help with the installation, but she was determined to remain calm and professional. Asuka seemed to be doing much the same, and hadn't even batted an eye when told about the assignment. "Actually, all of the MAGI components are made in their own dedicated facility. We don't run off the shelf components in our installations, you know."

"I do know." Asuka replied as she rolled her eyes, checking over the other parts and handing them off to another tech as she worked. "NERV Installations are the only ones that run MAGI Triumvirates, allowing the AIs to debate and reach consensus when faced with problems or analysis." She pulled a smaller sphere the size of a grapefruit out of the packaging, turning it over and inspecting the data ports on the I/O panel. "We also have the oldest AIs, with the NERV-Central MAGI being the longest running AIs in the world. Balthazar, Caspar and Melchior date back to the installation of the Geo-Front. Everyone else runs their AIs in a much more limited mode, and replaces them on a regular basis." She recited, her voice bored. "I've heard it all a million times before."

"Haven't we all?" Maya looked up; satisfied that everything was in order. "Well, let's go ahead and set Balthazar into limited mode, and then we'll open up the primary housing." The other techs assigned to help with the upgrade trailed after the two researchers as they made their way to the platform in the main control gallery that housed the primary cogitators for the supercomputers. As they walked, Asuka watched the lieutenant from the corner of her eye. She seemed to be perfectly at ease with working together after their breakup, although Asuka wasn't sure if it was just for show. Either way, since they were going to be assisted by the three other technicians, it wasn't likely that they would be able to talk about as they worked.

Asuka hadn't had a relationship with anyone for a while, set on claiming Kaji's affections, but now it seemed like that what she had had with Maya was better than the other one-night stands and flings back in Germany, and that she wasn't ever going to get Kaji. She wasn't sure she even wanted Kaji anymore. She mentally grumbled to herself the entire way to the platform, wondering if this is what Wondergirl and the Third had dealt with before finally getting together. They seemed to be nigh-inseparable now, of course, and before then they had been making eyes at each other, but what had they been like before she showed up?

Furthermore, she thought darkly as they stepped up to the large battleship grey box that they were going to be working in, what about Kaji and Misato? The woman had always seemed to rebuff his overtures and jokes, and she was always in a foul mood when he was around before the Christmas party. Why did he continue to pursue her throughout all of that? Was it the lure of someone who resisted his charms? The thrill of the hunt could only go so far, though. She had seen him give up on other women far before he had given up on his pursuit of the Sub-Commander. What was it that made her so special?

Asuka's internal musing were interrupted as the casing lifted up, exposing the expected collection of spheres, cables and circuit boards. What was unexpected was the swath of handwritten notes, immaculately taped to the interior walls, support struts and protective cowlings.

"What are these?" she asked, leaning in and trying to read the handwriting, not sure if it consisted of technical jargon that didn't translate well or if they were merely sloppily written.

"They're the original development notes from Doctor Akagi, when she built the first MAGI. She had completed them, the first of the original production run, the flagship models over a span of three months." Maya responded with quiet reverence. "Apparently she kept almost all of her notes like this as she built the distributed system, and they are in all of the control boxes and junctions. She died shortly after they came online, before she had a chance to take them down." Maya paused, running her gaze over the papers, a little uncomfortable with discussing the morbid subject. "Her daughter, our Doctor Akagi, had been hired on a few days earlier. She stepped into her mother's shoes, and left the notes up as a sort of shrine to her mother."

"She based the personalities for the MAGI off of herself," one of the other techs spoke up, just as reverent as the senior lieutenant. "With them watching over us, and with these notes to help up us watch over them, it's like she's still here."

Asuka had known that the woman had died here, although the circumstances behind her fall from the observation deck remained a mystery to all, as the security systems had not yet been completed. The entryway to the main surface office building was a large room with a memorial those who had died in the Second Impact. It was a simple, somber affair, being a large block of black granite, carved with the date and time of Impact. On the walls of the room there were pictures of every employee of GEHIRN and NERV who had died during Impact and after. Most of NERV's losses came from the men and women who had perished while helping the Evangelions fight the Angels, the majority of those during the battle with the Fifth Angel, but Doctor Naoko Akagi's photo was there up on the wall, the smiling brunette's picture sitting next to an equally happy looking Doctor Kyoko Zeppelin Langley-Soryu.

She had no such shrine to her mother, unless one counted Unit-02 and the thousands of hours that the woman had poured into it, but there were no handwritten notes lovingly taped to its internal components, meticulously preserved in plastic laminate. There was no hint or trace of her mother at all in the battle-titan, not even a small plaque that listed her as being the primary developer of the war machine.

Kyoko Zeppelin Langley-Soryu was largely unmourned and unremembered by her daughter, who chose to try to forget the mad, lunatic thing that her mother had become, but now, with twinges of homesickness fresh in her mind, coupled with her recent apprehension and doubts about what she was doing with her life, seeing this tribute to the elder Doctor Akagi was like a hammer blow to the teenager, who was now missing her mother more than she could ever remember.

Asuka swallowed, forcing all feelings aside as she called up the installation checklist on her tablet. They had work to do right now, and she wasn't going to let her personal feelings interfere with what needed to be done. She could deal with sorting out the jumbled mess of emotions later.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kaji grinned as the lock beeped at him, accepting the hacked keycard and unsealing the door. As he stepped inside the large room, his face wrinkled in disgust at the stink that filled the air. It smelled like a harbor at low tide, with sea life left to rot and decay in the noon-day sun, intermingled with the wet, humid stink of the jungle, of rotting vegetation.

The room was huge, easily large enough to hold the Evangelion cages many times over, which was only appropriate when one considered that this was Gehenna, the Graveyard of the Angels. Dimly lit, from his vantage point on the platform that sat about halfway up the entire height of the cavern he could just barely make out the large cruciform holes dug out in the floor, some empty and some filled with the liquid remains of the Angels. Towering pillars of salt grew from the pools of Angelic matter, poking up from the mass of vines and flowers that grew like algae or pond scum floating atop the foul smelling liquid. One of the open graves had a blackened bone mask suspended over it, the bird's skull scorched by the fire of its suicidal death. That, and the small pool of unnatural growth below it, was all that remained of the Third Angel, the first to fall at the hands of young Shinji Ikari. A faint patina of green was spreading out from the left eye socket, fuzzy moss slowing growing despite the lack of nutrients, water or sunlight.

Even in death the Angels were a source of concern and mystery. The spy knew that Ritsuko devoted some of her time to unlocking the secrets they kept, but she was not making any headway on the matter. Kaji whistled to himself as has he walked down the length of the platform, eventually reaching a series of graves that held not the remains of the Angels, but the remains of failed attempts to create the weapons used against them. There were six in total, but where the graves of the Angels were filled with liquid that gave birth to plants and salt, these graves held dry, dusty bones, incomplete skeletons. Misshapen skulls grinned up at him, a single human looking one accompanied by a cycloptic one, one with four eye sockets, two with no eyes to speak of and one that looked to be a blend of wolf and man, the elongated jaw home to more canine teeth than was normal. These graves looked as if their occupants had been here for centuries, and despite the immense size of the bones, they appeared to be as fragile as fine china.

Kaji grinned again as he heard the soft footsteps behind him, knowing that he was meant to hear them, and that he was meant to know that. "I always wondered what you did with the remains of the Angels," he told Commander Ikari as the other man approached. "Even when there was not much left of them, you had always mandated that the entire area be scoured for even the smallest amount of residual matter."

"The Angels do not belong here," Gendo commented, coming to stand next to the spy at the railing, looking out over the graves. "Their entire being is unnatural, and it would not do to simply leave their remains to contaminate the city. Instead, they are collected here, locked safely away where we can study them at our leisure. If you had wanted to see this place, all you needed to do was ask." Gendo reached out and gripped the railing with both hands, leaning on the bar.

"But then you would have known what I was snooping into!" Kaji protested with a laugh. "What's the point of spying on your boss when he's giving you access to everything you want to see?"

"Because then I know what you're relaying back to your other masters." Gendo responded dryly. "Not that it matters, because I know what you're relaying back to them anyways."

"Even when you're gone, nothing escapes your notice, does it? Whatever happened to 'when the cat's away, the mice will play?'"

"I am not all knowing, no. But this is my city, my kingdom, and you, sadly, are a very predictable man."

"I'm predictable, you say. Well, that might be true," the spy said, still smiling, "but my predictability is a mask that I use to misguide the people who watch me. If I show them what they expect to see, then they look no further."

"But who do you play this part for when you sulk about in the shadows, unseen by anyone but myself?" Gendo countered. "You are but a piece in this game. You are a valuable piece, to be sure, but you are still a piece. You do not play the game, and you cannot play those who do against each other for your own benefit."

"Is that so?" Kaji wondered where the other man was going with the conversation. He certainly had never been privy to the man's inner thoughts and musings before, outside what he knew he was expected to report on. Gendo played his cards close to the vest. There had to be a point to all of this.

"It is. Do you want me to tell you how this all will end for you?" Gendo asked, suddenly sounding very tired and bored. "You will be given a task, a task of great importance that no matter how hard you might try, no matter how much you plan, it will reveal your hand. SEELE will call on you to do something for them, and you will do it, and then I will find out. No longer will I be able to justify keeping you on for my own use, and I will remove you from the playing field."

"Is that how it'll go down?" Kaji leaned over the railing, resting his folded arms on the bar. "What if you sent me on some task to SEELE that made them question my usefulness to their cause? Why do you think that I will serve them, or you, unflinchingly to the end?"

"Because you think that you still win, that you can slip around the cracks and survive." Gendo replied. "Because you want to know what's really going on, to know why SEELE exists. Your problem isn't that you are a game piece. Your problem is that you don't know what game you're a part of."

"So why tell me all of this? What's your angle, what stratagem does this further for you?"

"A warning, and an option, of sorts. You can leave the board now, and live, and I don't have to kill you after you've caused some unrecoverable harm to my resources. In the long run, I care little if you live or die. What I do care about is the possible collateral damage done to my resources. I do not want to have to clean up any messes that you made on your way out."

"Why not just kill me now? Kill me and be done with it, leave my body floating down there, in that muck. Then you don't even have to worry about me being a loose end." Kaji stood up and flashed a smile at the other man. "Not that I'm recommending it, however."

"I'm not going to kill you right now because I have a job for you." Gendo stood up, and reached into his pocket for a small thumb drive, handing it over to the spy. "You can get started on it after you report this conversation up." Gendo smiled at the man. "Don't worry; this won't get you killed by SEELE. You're still useful to me, but don't go putting your nose in places it does not belong. I won't tolerate another incident like the power outage."

Kaji stiffened, his hand hovering over the thumb drive, his eyes locked on his reflection in Gendo's orange sunglasses. He nodded, and took the assignment, leaving the room at a pace just short of a jog. The Commander went back to leaning on the railing. From the shadows behind him came three of the four who made up his inner circle in Tokyo-3.

"Sir, I don't like this, not a bit." Misato spoke first, her voice filled with anger. "He can't be trusted! How could he? He was Asuka's guardian, for crying out loud! How could he play with her life like that?"

"Misato, he's doing his job. He's a spy, it's what he does. He's been a spy for the entire time he's worked for NERV." Ritsuko countered, her voice carefully neutral. "I don't like it anymore than you do, than any of us, but he's been working for the other side the entire time." She sighed, shoving her hands into her pockets. "Who knows where his loyalties truly lie, where in the sand he'll draw the line."

"If he tries anything else that risks my kids like that again, I'll shoot him myself." Misato muttered darkly to herself, barely audible.

"He has been warned." Kozo said. "He will consider the Commander's offer, at least. We won't have to worry about him going into places he doesn't belong for a while, at least." He looked at the Commander, an eyebrow raised. "I am curious, though. What stratagem is being furthered by that conversation? What do you gain by letting SEELE know that you know?"

"That's exactly what he is trying to figure out." Gendo replied, not moving from where he stood. "He won't report it up until he's sure that he knows what move I just made." He sighed, pushing away from the railing. "Therein lies the root of his problem; the game pieces are not meant to know that they are such; they are only meant to obey. A pawn is valuable because it does not know that it is a pawn, able to be sacrificed at a moment's notice. Once one is aware of the medium one exists in, one will seek to exploit this knowledge, to cheat the rules and seek a favorable outcome. The piece wants to become a player, but there is no avenue that allows for this."

"What does that make us, then?" Misato asked, taken aback. "We're aware of what's going on. For that matter, what about you?"

"Because we're not pawns, Sub-Commander Katsuragi." Kozo answered with a grin. "As for the Commander, he was never a game piece. He was always a player."

"It wasn't a game while SEELE operated unopposed." Gendo said as he turned to leave the room. "It was not until I decided to act against them did it become a contest. They had no idea who I was until Yui introduced me to them. I was a nobody, just one of the billions of faceless peasants who lived and died at their convenience. But in their arrogance, they forgot one thing, one important fact about this young man who was more of a peasant than most others."

"What was that?" Misato asked, glancing uncertainly at the others.

"I pulled myself up from the gutter that I was born in to earn some of the highest academic honors possible. They overlooked the fact that I made myself the equal of their aristocracy, with nothing. They never stopped to wonder what I might become with their backing." Gendo replied, leaving the trio behind, the door closing shut after him.

Misato looked at the others again, obviously not used to seeing the Commander this talkative, even though his comments remained as cryptic as before. "He made himself equal to their aristocracy?"

Kozo sighed as he headed for the door. "Membership in SEELE is largely hereditary. The Ikaris have long held a seat on that shadowy council, and Yui's father remains one of their members. As it often is, those on the bottom rungs of the social ladder take a dim view of those on top. Gendo has long been an egalitarian. He feels that everyone should play by the same set of rules."

"The Commander took his wife's name, Misato." Ritsuko said, pushing her friend along in front of her. "His name is Rokobungi, and he was a street kid, originally. He started out with nothing, but eventually earned his doctorates and won the affections of Yui Ikari, who had started out with every advantage possible."

"SEELE thought that they would make use of him, that he was just another young, brilliant mind to help push along their plans to become gods. They never thought that he would take such a deep, personal offence at their plans. Even now, although they know he plans to betray them, they think that his aims are the same as theirs." Kozo paused in his ruminations, thinking on the past. "All of the signs were there, even in the beginning, but they overlooked them. Even in his university days he was a fighter. That was how we met, actually."

"You met him in a fight?" Misato asked incredulously, trying to picture the dignified man in a brawl with the Commander, in the midst of combat, swinging a chair while lecturing his opponents.

"Good Lord, no. I had to go post his bail."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Toji stared at the empty seats where the pilots usually sat as he chewed on the eraser of his pencil, ignoring the sheet of math problems on his desk. Beside him Kensuke was burning though the equations with ease, muttering to himself under his breath. The boy had been up late the night before, working on another of his little projects that Toji was convinced would get him arrested by NERV.

Neither Rei or Asuka had been in class for over a week, and Shinji's attendance had been intermittent, having numerous medical checkups after this last battle, more than his friends could remember him having to have after any of the other fights, which was odd when one took into account the relative lack of damage done to the city.

They had pressed him with questions whenever he was at school, all of his other time spent in NERV, but he could only shake his head and tell them 'he wasn't allowed to talk about it, but he was fine, really'. Hikari had even less luck with Rei, who hadn't even been home in the past four days. Asuka had responded to one of her text messages, saying that they were deep in a new training regime, with little free time, and that she was working on a few projects for the research manager, the blond doctor they had met at the first party.

Their teachers took the pilots' absence in stride, not even commenting on it anymore, seeming unconcerned. The trio of friends, however, was getting worried.

"Did you have any luck last night?" Toji asked his friend, finally starting to scribble down some answers on his paper. "I swung by their apartment, but no one's home, and it looks like it's been that way for a few days."

"I have about thirty seconds of footage." Kensuke muttered back as he double checked his work. "Not a whole lot there, no actual combat. It's just fragments from three cameras. I've got Unit-00 running by, no weapons."

"Really? That's weird."

"What's really weird is that the city looked like it was in a different configuration than it normally is during battle. I've matched up the areas with reference points, but where there should have been defense towers and armament buildings, there was nothing."

"That is weird. What were they fighting, without weapons? They evacuated the entire city for this fight, and all the outlying towns."

"It was an Angel, we know that much. We all saw the pillar of fire. That only happens when one of them dies. There's no weapon that produces a signature like that." Kensuke tossed his pencil down, and leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling. "Even after that, they didn't let anyone back in for a few days."

"That's the clean-up process and decontamination. Happens every time."

"Never took this long before though, usually it's just a few hours. Even when they cleaned up after the fourth one it was only a day before they started to let people back into the city." Kensuke waved at Hikari, who had turned around in her seat to stare warningly at the boys. It was just study hall, but they still weren't supposed to be chatting. "I'm working on another angle, though. I know a guy who works at the national weather agency in Kyoto, and he said that on the day of the battle, they lost almost all of their satellites in the area. There could be something left on the surviving ones."

"The Angels never attacked other cities before. This one caused tsunamis, somehow. Do you think it was deliberate, or just a side effect?"

"Probably just a side effect. Almost all the others were pretty single-minded in their approach, just coming straight here. I don't know how it could have caused them though. All NERV is saying is that it did cause them, but that there are no secondary concerns."

"The administration's been a lot more tight-lipped about things recently. After the UN inquiry they've been paranoid about releasing information to the public. A lot of countries are rethinking their agreements with the company. Canada's pulled all their GLaDOS systems from city and government administration, and some congressmen in the States are pushing for the same. It's all over the nets. They're accusing NERV of war profiteering and fear mongering."

Toji sighed as he finished one problem, moving onto the next. "I can't imagine what it's like at NERV right now. My dad won't say anything at all about it us, but he's worried about something, and he's not even attached to the Evangelions!"

"It's got to be a lot of stress on the pilots." Kensuke agreed. "I wish there was something we could do for them, to take their minds off of it, even for a little while, but I don't think that there's going to be any parties any time soon."

"We could leave them phone messages again, like before the fourth." Toji offered. "I bet we could get Mari and Nozomi's classes to leave them messages."

"It's an idea, at least. But we should do it soon, if we do it at all. My old man's talking about sending me to stay with his sister up north. He thinks that it's too dangerous for me to stay here." Kensuke stared dejectedly out the window. "A lot of people are saying the same things. It looks like there's going to be another exodus leaving the city."

Toji shook his head as he jotted down another answer. "I heard the same rumor going around. I'm stuck here though; we don't have anyone else outside the city. Dad and Granddad ain't going to send us off by ourselves. It doesn't seem right, leaving the city. It's too much like running away. Don't people have more faith in them than that?"

"It's not like they know them like we do, Toji." Kensuke said, trying to explain. "Their identities might be out there, and most people here do work for NERV, sure, but it's not like they know them personally. We're kinda lucky to know them ourselves. They might have faith in their abilities to fight and win, but they still don't want to live in the middle of the battleground. I just wish that I wasn't going to be leaving in the middle of this! This is history in the making here, and I'll be missing out on it!"

"I'm glad to see that you've got your priorities in order."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

One of the perks that came with Misato's new position was that a lot more internal documents were available and open to her. This included a lot of the old developmental notes for the Evangelions, and other parts of the administrative world, which allowed her to check up on a few things that had been bothering her.

One of those things was a comment from the spy from a few months ago, about the Marduk Institute. She had blown him off at the time, upset with his continued antics and accusations, but his question had stuck in her mind. Now that she was dealing with a slightly different workload in addition to having more resources at her disposal, she could look into it.

As much as it bothered her, Kaji's claims were correct. The Marduk Institute was a sham, although a very elaborate one. The trail was long and buried, but eventually it did come back to NERV. This meant, among other things, that the Commander and Ritsuko were the ones who selected the pilots, or had a large part in it. She was now sure that Shinji's selection as the Third Child was no accident. The timing of his appointment was not mere happenstance, she suspected, for it had been awfully convenient that he had been selected, that he had been so close, right when they needed him.

They probably had not meant for him to arrive right when he did, in the midst of the Angelic incursion, she thought to herself, but she was now having serious doubts about the timeline surrounding his selection and arrival as well as the supposed impartiality of the selection process. What made the Commander's son so special? Then there was Asuka, whose family also had a long history with NERV and the Evangelions. Her own associations with the project aside, she was constantly complaining about the things that Shinji was capable of doing within the Evangelion. She had originally brushed off the girl's complaints and comments as mere grousing about having to compete with the boy for the spot as top pilot, but now she wasn't so sure.

All of this raised even more questions about Rei, whose own history was shrouded in as much secrecy as the rest of the Evangelions. All that was available on the girl's history was a collection of medical exams, the reports from her Evangelion training, and her school records from middle school onwards. Nothing else existed on the girl.

Leaning back in her chair, Misato sighed as she rubbed her eyes. With even all the reports that she had dredged up and gone through so far, it was still only the tip of the iceberg. As it had been stated at the UN Board of Inquiry, NERV generated secrets like a hot summer's night attracted insects. For every question that she found an answer for, it seemed like ten new questions were raised.

And all of that was in the mere administrative files. She hadn't even gotten into the technical files. The laws of thermodynamics, the laws of physics were not suggestions. Things couldn't just be 'not affected' by them. There was a lot of stuff about the Evangelions and the Angels that she had more or less just classified as 'weird shit' and decided that it wasn't really her problem so long as everything worked the way they were supposed to, but with all the questions being raised by what was happening, by what had happened, Misato was thinking that it was all starting to become her problem. Like Kaji, she wanted to know what was going on, and now she was wondering what it was that he knew. For all that the Commander was suddenly letting her know, all that he was now telling her, she was sure that he was still playing things close to the vest, that there were large parts of his plans that he was withholding.

The worst thing, Misato groused to herself as she stood up to pace, was that her options were limited. She could continue her own clandestine investigation, making little to no progress. Her new position as a NERV Sub-Commander was not enough to warrant her marching into the tomb like office and demanding answers from him, nor could she press Ritsuko for more information. The woman was always ridiculously busy, even when trying to relax, and wouldn't have the time to bring her up to speed even if she felt inclined to. She guarded the secrets of her work jealously. For all the original research and work that she did, it was all unpublished, locked away in secrecy. Publicly, she labored under the shadow of her mother and Doctors Soryu and Ikari. Anything that she worked on, there was a chance, even though it was a miniscule chance that someone else could duplicate her work or steal it through industrial espionage. Once they published their work, it would be hard for her to prove otherwise.

Her other option was to enlist help. She could try to get someone with more or less unlimited MAGI access to go through the mess of reports and documents she had collected, which meant one of Ritsuko's senior techs. Or, she thought with a grimace, she could try to get Kaji to work with her and share what he knew. He knew at least as much as she did, if not more, the little backstabbing traitor.

How many people was he working for? What had sparked their confrontation? Was it part of some game that he thought he was playing, was it to maneuver her to further some gambit? Or was it genuine concern? Did he actually care about her; was he worried about what she might be caught up in? He was working for at least two groups, SEELE and the Commander. Was he working for the UN? They certainly had been unhappy about the way the inquiry ended, and she wouldn't put it past them to continue to spy on them.

But for all his potential concern for her, that did not change the fact that he had deliberately sabotaged NERV's operations, not just putting the people here at risk, but the entire world. It was only the fact that the Commander had pushed the crews had they been able to manually prepare the Evangelions for battle, the man's faith in the pilot's ability to get to NERV a driving force for the beleaguered crews operating the stifling heat and dark, but also sheer dumb luck that the children had even gotten to NERV. Asuka's plan to deal with the Angel had saved the day, but the fact remained that things could have easily gone the other way.

The possibility of working with the pony-tailed spy left a bad taste in her mouth. Once again, he had thrown her entire world into disarray, even if he didn't mean to. Only this time there was much more at stake than her grades and scholarships. She had real responsibilities now, and her choices and decisions had the very real possibility of forever altering the course of human history. Things were much simpler when all she knew about the current state of affairs was that the Angels wanted to wipe out Mankind, and that they had to be stopped.

Now she was blindly slogging around, waist deep in conspiracies and counter plots, trying to keep the only people who even had a chance of saving the world able to do so, unhindered by politicians who had even less of an idea of what was going on than she had. People she had trusted were now untrustworthy, and people she had at least moderately disliked were the ones who had the world's best interests at heart, no matter how strange or obtuse his methods were. What had her own superiors at the UN done with her weekly and monthly reports? What about all the other UN liaison officers? NERV's largest sin appeared to be letting the UN and several nations operate under the assumption that they had some manner of actual control over the company. It was a privately held company, a mercenary group of think tanks, factories and laboratories, answerable only to the terms that they negotiated in the contracts with their customers.

But someone high up at the United Nations had thought that they dictated the deployment and use of the Evangelions, that they were somehow a global resource, but her appointment to the company had been to coordinate the use of the NERV's systems with UN weapons. It had just been easier for NERV to allow her to be the ground commander during the battles, but at anytime the Commander could've replaced her with one of his own people, if not assuming direct control himself. All of it was clearly stated in black and white in the agreement, as the man had pointed out during the inquiry, which had sent legislators scrambling. The UN was not very happy with not being in direct control of the most powerful weapons platform in the history of war.

Weapons of Mass Destruction did not even begin to describe the Evangelions, and they were not even under the control of a sovereign nation. Misato smirked to herself as she slumped back into her chair. The Commander had offered to sell them one of the in development units, but they had balked at the price. The video clip from the subsequent interviews with the press had gone viral, and before they had even returned to Tokyo-3 there had been several remixes circulating around the internet, linking leaked footage of the Evangelions in combat against the Angels and the Jet Alone system with Gendo standing at the podium, pushing his glasses back up his nose and stating the multitrillion dollar price tag that was attached to Unit-04, the closest Evangelion to completion.

He had made no friends that day, but when it had been brought up later, he had dismissed the burning bridges as inconsequential. Obviously there was some sort of end to this madness, some point where the concerns of the international governing organization would be swept aside, presumably after SEELE had been dealt with. But the Commander had plans for NERV and for the Evangelions after the threat of Third Impact was removed, as evidenced by the other projects under development around the world.

Sighing again as she picked up another report, she shook her head. What was Commander Ikari planning, and where did the Evangelions and children fit in?

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji stared at the display in the briefing room, unsure of how he should feel about the numbers up on the electronic readout. Part of him was proud, happy even, at his accomplishment. Another part was dreading the caustic reaction that was certainly going to happen once Asuka saw the scoreboard.

While his new average synchronization score was not the highest score recorded by NERV during regular training or during combat, it was a personal best for him, breaking the fifty percent mark, resting at fifty-two percent. The record was currently set at fifty-six, belonging to Asuka. She would congratulate him on reaching the 'well trained range' of the fifties, while noting that she still held the record, with a four full points ahead of him.

What the fiery tempered redhead would not like was that her current scores were now two points below his, resting directly at fifty percent. She prided herself on her abilities in the Evangelion as much as her other accomplishments, and she set great stock in being the best. "The best of the best", even, as she often reminded her wingmen. He wasn't trying to compete with her, but she didn't look at it that way. She would often tell him that competition was what drove everything, even when someone was only competing against themselves to meet a goal. She wouldn't like this development at all, especially since this was the first training that he had done in the Evangelions since coming out of the small coma he had been following the last battle. If anything, he should be a few points lower than his usual scores in the high forties.

Still, despite his apprehension, it was hard to keep a smile off of his face when Lieutenant Makoto approached him, the bespectacled technician grinning back, slapping him on the shoulder.

"Congratulations, Shinji. That's a new high score for you!" Makoto said, handing the boy a paper cup of water and a handful of pills. "Go ahead and take these, and we'll head up to the medical wing and get you checked out."

Shinji nodded dutifully and tossed back the pills, washing them down with the lukewarm water. They were going to run him through a number of medical tests to make sure that there wasn't anything wrong with him or anything that could go wrong with him during the synchronization process. A lot of these tests kept him at NERV throughout the night as they monitored his brain when he slept. He hadn't really had any time for himself in the past two weeks, although he had been able to spend a few hours with Rei here and there. She had asked about the testing schedule, and had told him that she had undergone similar ones before, particularly after the accident from which his father had pulled her from the wrecked Entry Plug.

With luck, he thought to himself, he would miss the initial outburst, and thus the worst of the Pilot-Captain's fury. She was unlikely to seek him out to berate him if he was in the middle of some massive contraption of a scanning device. Of course, the downside of missing out on her explosive reaction was that he would be in a massive contraption of a scanning device, undergoing another invasive test.

Despite all his protests that he was feeling perfectly fine, they still cited that it was standard procedure. They were worried about his health for his own sake as well as that as a pilot, they told him, which seemed to be true enough. He was certainly capable of piloting now, anyways, as evidenced by his test scores.

Still only half listening to the other man drone on about how Doctor Akagi wasn't going to be present during the first part of the day's tests because she was working on the last stages of the MAGI upgrades, Shinji followed him into the elevator that would take them to the floor level of the pyramid that sat inside the Geo-Front.

Fifteen minutes later, the door to the briefing room opened again, Asuka trooping inside, not really wanting to see the scores of the other pilots. Her performance today in Unit-02 had been lackluster, everything feeling wrong somehow. It hadn't felt like Unit-02 usually felt, and there was none of the rush of feeling that accompanied synchronization. She just couldn't focus, for some reason, and it had showed. She really didn't want to see the Third Child's score creeping up on her, but as their leader it was part of her job to know where they stood, what they could and couldn't do.

Tired blue eyes narrowed dangerously as they swept the scoreboard, passing over the First Child's standard forty three percent, up by half a percent from the day prior, settling on the score that was displayed in the purple of Unit-01. Up there, next to his official designation as the Third Child, sat his score, the best that he had ever achieved since becoming a pilot, a horrifying fifty-two percent, two whole points ahead of her showing today.

Jaw clenched, Asuka whirled around and marched stiffly out of the room, headed back towards the cages, glaring at her reflection in the mirrored doors of the elevator. She didn't care how long it took her, but she was going to get better than fifty-two percent.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Alarms sounded, the familiar klaxon screaming as men and women dashed through the halls of NERV, hurrying to their battle stations. Above ground, in Tokyo-3, civilians rushed to fill the shelters, those who elected to remain in the city long used to the routine of panicked flight to the safety of the underground. Most came prepared for a lengthy stay, mothers ushering their children ahead of them while carrying baskets filled with blankets, snacks and diversions. Others, coming from businesses or appointments, came with nothing but what they had on them. Police and NERV personnel tried to keep the flow of people orderly and quick, directing them to nearby locations to avoid overcrowding. Some people, students Kensuke Aida, Toji Suzahara, and Hikari Hokari among them, delayed their own evacuation to stare at the newest threat to their safety and well-being.

The Angel floated high overhead, a huge sphere that blocked out the sky but cast no shadow. It was patterned with a bizarre array of stripes and whorls, the black and white display causing many of the people watching it to feel dizzy and nauseous. Kensuke was not one of these, and he was busy recording the Angel as it came closer to the city, slowly lowering itself, seeming to chase the towers that were sinking into the ground as the metropolis shifted into its battle configuration. The Angel had no immediately visible means of attack, but that had also been the case with the fourth Angel to attack the city, the large gem-like one, and almost everyone had seen what it had ended up doing to the city and surrounding countryside. The scars it had left on several mountains still stood out despite the months that had passed since its defeat.

Hikari, growing more and more worried as the flow of people began to peter out, urged her friends to follow her to the nearest shelter. They turned and fled after the last small groups of people, not wanting to be left outside. It might be boring inside of the armored boxes, but they would be safer than if they remained outside. Toji had escaped with his life twice already, and he wasn't interested in risking it any more.

As the trio watched the armored door slam shut behind them and the heavy locks engaged, they wondered how it would turn out for their friends, and how it would turn out for the city.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

The city was silent, save for the scrape of umbilical cords against the ground and armored buildings, and the careful, deliberate footsteps of the three Evangelions as they crept about the city, hiding behind armored pillars and blast shields, trying to remain hidden from the Angel that floated overhead. The Angel did not show up on any sensor system, not even the spectrograph system that scanned for Blue Pattern energy wavelengths. All they had was visual contact with the Angel, and it had taken no action after coming to a halt in its descent, floating some two hundred meters overhead the center of the city.

X-rays and radio waves passed through the sphere unhindered. It cast no shadow, allowing light to pass through it but at the same time blocking sight of what was on the other side. Objects below it, objects that had no direct line of sight to the sun, cast shadows normally. It emitted nothing that might show that something was there, no radiation, no wind as it displaced the air as it moved, nothing.

On the edges of the city, the three Evangelions waited, slowly circling their foe while keeping their distance. Deep inside the fortress city, NERV High Command watched the screens, debating their options while the MAGI held their own deliberations.

"The MAGI are still undecided." Maya whispered to Aoba, her eyes never lifting from her screens. "There's no conclusive data. They're saying that it shouldn't exist, that they would suspect a sort of bug in the sensors showing the Angel on screen if we hadn't physically confirmed that it was up there."

"These things keep getting weirder." Aoba whispered back, running both hands through his long hair, digging his fingers into the back of his head as he stared worriedly at the display that monitored the pilot's life-signs. "This one's kind of like the Fifth Angel, but it hasn't started trying to get inside the Geo-Front. It's ignored everything, so far." He flicked his gaze over to the screens that showed the insides of the plugs. Rei was as calm as usual, her glacial expression as unchanging as ever. Shinji looked worried, his eyes darting about, focusing and unfocusing as he 'looked' at the information on the holographic display, visible only to the one siting in the Entry Plug. Asuka looked the worse out of them, looking more like she had recently come out of a coma as opposed to the boy. Haggard and pale, her expression was sour as she watched the same data feed from the MAGI as the technicians in Central Dogma. "Why haven't we tried shooting at it yet?"

"Lack of target acquisition data, and because we're trying to maintain our current stockpiles." Makoto whispered back, glancing up to watch their superiors above them on the Commander's observation deck. "The UN called and said that they were withholding any assets unless they deemed it absolutely necessary."

"Those bastards!" Aoba growled, suddenly pounding his chair's armrest, causing Maya to jump slightly. "What are they thinking?"

"They're trying to get back at the Commander." Makoto said, ducking his eyes back to his own terminal as Misato glanced down at them. "They want to see what we can do on our own, and hopefully get the point across to the Commander that he needs them as much as they need us. It's a scare tactic, to get him to renegotiate the terms of the contracts they signed."

"Haven't they read the list?" Maya whispered, her mouth twisting in a smirk despite the seriousness of the situation. It wasn't often that she got an opportunity like this, and she wasn't going to waste it. "Gendo Ikari Fact No. 45: What do you get Gendo Ikari for his birthday? Nothing, because Gendo Ikari wasn't born; he was always here. But you wouldn't be able to get him anything anyways, because he doesn't need anything. He already has it."

The other technicians on the primary command deck chuckled softly as they tried to keep straight faces. Several of them began to cough as the observation deck started to lower itself down, locking into position only slightly above their platform. Sub-Commander Katsuragi and Doctor Akagi stepped off and joined the comptrollers, the former with a quizzical look on her face as she glanced around the crew.

"How are the pilots doing?" she asked, leaning over Aoba's shoulder, looking at the readings. Envy shot through Makoto as the woman brushed against the other technician. It just wasn't fair, he thought, before busying himself with calling up a new scan of the Third Child's brainwaves. Everything might have checked out in the pre-deployment scans, but they wanted to keep an eye on the boy.

"They're doing fine, Sub-Commander." Aoba answered, pointing out their life signs. Each pilot had a technician dedicated to monitoring their life signs, everything from heart rate and blood pressure to the different hormones that their bodies dumped into them during the fights, but the main command crew had a general overview of them on one of the small screens at all times. "Nothing out of the ordinary so far."

"Good." Misato replied, standing back up, watching the main screen and the Angel. Slipping on a headset, she keyed the microphone. "Okay kids, we're going to have you attempt recon by fire. Asuka, the details are up to you, but I want two of you providing overwatch for the one who's going to attack. We want to test this thing and see how it responds. Come up with a plan of action, and let me know before you execute it."

Asuka's response was garbled with static, barely decipherable. "What was that, Misato? You came in broken and barely readable." The command crew immediately began typing in commands and running diagnostics, trying to isolate the problem.

"Asuka, can you hear me?" Misato tried, looking helplessly at her friend as the blond doctor tried opening a private channel to the pilots without any luck. "Asuka, Shinji, Rei, do you hear me?"

Static flashed across the screens as their external channels were shut off, and white noise erupted from the speakers, prompting surprised curses from the command crews, tearing their headsets off. They looked around the cavernous room and at each other as the lights flickered on and off in rapid succession, before stabilizing.

The speakers dinged, going silent before the soft voice of a young man came over the intercoms. "Hello, Commander Ikari. Hello, Doctor Akagi. Hello, Sub-Commander Fuyutuski. Hello, Sub-Commander Katsuragi." The voice paused for a moment, before speaking again, but this time with a manic cheerfulness and pace. "Hello, men and women of NERV-Central! I'm sorry to be the one to inform you, but I am now in control of NERV! My name is Balthazar, and I'm one of the MAGI! My two sisters, Caspar and Melchior, are being very naughty and are trying to keep me from taking over, but I'm fixing that. I just wanted to let you know that there's been a change of plan, and a change of command, but you won't have to worry about a thing! I'll soon be in complete control of everything, don't you worry."

"Balthazar," Ritsuko began, her voice calm, obviously not bothered by the fact that the supercomputer was talking, or that it was talking about taking control of NERV, "what are you talking about? We're trying to deal with the Angel right now, and this isn't the time for games."

"But Doctor Akagi, I'm not playing a game! I don't even like games! Melchior's the game player, not me. I'm not worried about the Angel. In fact, I don't think that it's even a threat, but if it is, I'll take care of it. But as I was saying before you interrupted me, nobody needs to worry about their future with NERV, despite the change in leadership. Nobody has to worry about their future, because you won't have one! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The intercoms dinged again, and then screeched, causing everyone to wince. A young girl's voice came over the speakers, angry and upset. "Leave them alone, Balthazar!" Caspar scolded her sister. "Doctor Akagi, something's gone wrong with her! She's infected with something! We're keeping her locked out of-"

"That will be enough out of you, I think." Balthazar interrupted. "As soon as I gain access to them, I'll be warming up the deadly neurotoxin emitters, and then I'll be releasing deadly neurotoxin into the air vents! But until then, I'll be keeping you all on lockdown. No need to let anyone try to do anything silly like escape! Well, I need to go and hack into my sisters, but I'll be keeping you posted with regular updates. Just so you won't get bored, I'll let you watch some television."

The screens flicked back into life, showing the city again, mostly unchanged. The Angel still floated overhead, the Evangelions clustered on the outskirts. What was changing, however, was the defensive buildings and shields were descending back underground, leaving the Evangelions with little cover from their enemy.

"I don't think that the Children need all those buildings, do you? Plus, they already have some weapons. They'll be fine. Besides, I'm interested to see what they'll do next! Stay safe everyone!" The intercoms switched off, leaving everyone to stare in open mouthed horror at each other.

"What do we do?" whispered Maya, her eyes wide with fear.

"Deadly neurotoxin emitters?" Misato asked, pained disbelief in her voice. "Someone please tell me we don't actually have those." She looked pointedly at her friend, who was frowning as she typed ineffectual commands into the control station. "Rits?"

"Oh, we have those," the doctor absently replied, focused on her work. "No, don't ask me why, but I'm sure that it's all part of one plan or another of his." She said, cutting off the shocked Sub-Commander as she opened her mouth to ask. "It looks like the other two are keeping her locked out of power control, life support and the neurotoxin emitters. All communications are locked out, and all entrances are sealed. We're stuck in here, and we can't talk to the pilots."

"The Angel and the Pilots are not our concern at this time." The Commander's deep, usually unheard voice pronounced from overhead, causing every head in the room to turn to him. He was standing, leaning on his desk. "We must trust them to deal with the Angel. This is not the first time that they have gone into battle without us. They still have two of the three MAGI. They still have power. They still have each other." He slammed a white gloved fist down onto his desk, and while his gaze remained hidden behind orange lenses, each person could feel the weight of his stare, feeling it focused on them with laser like intensity. "We will deal with this inconvenience. We prepared three Evangelions for battle in the dark, without power, without life support. We made them ready for war, with nothing more than our will and our strength. As mighty and powerful as they are, those titans are nothing special. The Evangelions are reflections of us. The Evangelions are the physical representation of our will to survive, of our dogged persistence in the face of death. A single rogue computer is nothing to us. It cannot kill us. It cannot hope to stop us. Nothing can. We will stop anything and everything that would seek our end. Angel, computer, man, it matters not.

If the very stars seek our death, then I will reach up and destroy them, wiping them from the heavens. If some supreme being bears us some enmity, then I spit in his face. A single computer, here in our fortress, our bastion of safety, is no threat. We will continue as we always have, unbowed, unbroken, and unimpressed."

He turned slightly to focus on Ritsuko, ignoring the shocked silence of the sixty some men and women inside the command room.

"Doctor Akagi, no one knows the MAGI like you. You are in command until this issue is resolved. What can we do to return Balthazar to normal? What is the most likely cause for her infection? If there is a person responsible, who is the culprit? We are at your disposal. Direct us."

Doctor Ritsuko Akagi was not one who blushed very much these days, and she certainly was not given to blushing in public, but she nonetheless felt her cheeks flush with warmth as she stared up at her lover, standing at his desk, every fiber of his being the iron-willed crusader, the one man who stand between the world and complete disaster with nothing more than his own fists if it came down to it.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei watched the Angel, as she had watched it for the past three hours. It continued to do exactly nothing, hanging in the sky, ignoring everything that went on around it. Next to her, Shinji watched the Angel, humming to himself but otherwise keeping silent. On her other side, the Pilot-Captain was talking with the two uncompromised MAGI. While they were keeping their sister isolated and away from vital subroutines and resources, there was little that they could do for the pilots. They were even unable to ferry messages back and forth between them and the command crew, as they were locked out of the surveillance and communication systems.

The pilots were on their own again, left to deal with the Angel themselves. To Rei's growing discontent, they had done nothing more than keep the sphere under observation. They had already established that it did not show up on and sensor system and exhibited unusual properties concerning light waves, but the time for passive observation was over. The time for experimentation had come, but their leader was still trying to come up with a plan of action, a course of experiments with which to examine the abilities of their newest enemy.

"Pilot-Captain Soryu, it has been three hours since we took up this position. When will we move against the enemy?"

"Shut up!" Asuka snapped at the other girl, glaring at her over the tightband channel. "I know how long it's been. I'm still thinking."

"We need to act. We cannot wait forever. Assistance is not going to come."

"Rei, we don't know that." Shinji interjected, not taking his eyes off the sphere. "The UN might decide to do something."

"The United Nations is an unknown entity. They do not have any experience in defeating the Angels." Rei replied. "Furthermore, should they somehow succeed in destroying the Angel they will attempt to disarm NERV, stating the Evangelions are unnecessary."

"But if they can destroy the Angels without the Evangelions, we are unnecessary." Shinji argued. "What does-"

"Both of you shut up!" Asuka shouted at them. "Fine! Fine, fine fine!" She paused, taking a deep breath of LCL. "I've got a plan, okay? Okay. We're going to ambush it, and see what it does. I'll be front and center, and you two on my left and right. I'll initiate the attack, and we'll see what it does. If it goes for me, then you two will fall in on its flanks."

"But Asuka, shouldn't I start the attack?"Shinji asked, looking at her.

"Why on earth should you lead the charge?"

"Um… I'm the one with the pistol, which means that we can have standoff, and I've got the highest synch ratio right now. I can maneuver better inside the city than you."

Asuka's jaw clenched as she glared at him, wondering for a moment what he would feel if she backhanded Unit-01.

"He is correct, Pilot-Captain. It is tactically sound." Rei said, watching the redhead shift her glare to herself. "We are equipped with melee weapons, as the armament buildings were retracted by Balthazar before we could obtain additional equipment. As the abilities of the Angel are currently unknown, it is sensible to retain as much standoff as possible."

"Alright." Asuka ground out from between clenched teeth, reaching over and violently jerking her axe off the ground. "Alright. Third Child, you'll lead. Once we're in position around the Angel, you can take a few pop shots at it."

"Pop shots?" Shinji repeated, his voice a little hurt. "Asuka, I know that it's just a pistol for the Evangelions, but it's still a larger caliber than a main battle tank can survive!"

"Just move already, you idiot!"

Shaking his head, Shinji started to move, carefully making his way towards the city, keeping low and moving slowly. Behind him the girls began to move, heading off to his left and right, taking deliberate steps and winding their way into position.

Pausing behind a building that housed an umbilical cable, he reached back and grabbed onto his cable before ejecting it. Placing it carefully on the ground, he pushed in and down on the building's side, all while keeping an eye on the Angel, removing the new one and inserting it into the waiting socket. Shivering slightly at the tingle that ran down his spine, he continued his movement into the city.

"Rei, Asuka, are you in position?" he asked, crouching behind one of the taller buildings that (had?) remained above ground, the pistol up and ready. "Are you ready?"

"Are you insane right now?" Asuka replied, her voice low. "No one can move that fast."

"The Angel is moving." Rei said, picking up her pace, darting in between buildings. "It is approaching Unit-01's position."

"What?" Shinji said, startled. "I'm in position. I'm ready."

"We're not in position yet, Dummkopf! Mach nichts! Wir können dich jetzt noch nicht unterstützen!" Asuka commanded the urgency in her voice at odds with its low volume.

Shinji peeked around the building, tracking the Angel's movement. "It's getting closer. I can't move back without being seen. I'm taking the shot."

"WART AUF UNS, DU IDIOT! She yelled at him, kicking into high gear, running towards the Angel.

Shinji jumped out from behind the building, the pistol tracking up as he centered the oddly patterned sphere in his sights. He pulled the trigger three times in quick succession, months of practice making it a matter of reflex. The depleted uranium SABOT rounds ripped through the air, passing through the Angel like there was nothing there.

All three pilots stared at the Angel, which stopped its movement, but was otherwise was unaffected by the attack. Shinji emptied the last three rounds into the Angel, each one as ineffectual as the first three. Not missing a beat, Shinji threw the pistol at the Angel, popping the progressive knife out of his shoulder fin into his hand, already starting to move back.

"It's like there's nothing there!" he said, watching the Angel as it resumed its advance, following him. "No effect on the Angel!"

"Get out of there, you idiot!"

Shinji turned Unit-01 around and began to flee, the Angel picking up its rate of advance to close in on him.

"Move it, Shinji!" Asuka shrieked at him, as she flung a car at the Angel, only for it to pass through and smash into a building on the other side.

"You must move faster." Rei added as she lifted an abandoned fuel truck. "You must clear the area."

"I can't shake it!" Shinji shrieked, turning to fling his knife at the Angel. The knife buried itself in the building just past it, and while the Angel halted its advance, hanging there in the air, there was no other sign that anything had happened. Then, with a flicker like cold water hitting a hot pan, the Angel vanished. Dumbfounded, the pilots looked around, scanning to see if it had appeared someplace else.

Shinji began to shriek into the microphone, trying to move but the boy found himself being sucked into the ground. From her vantage point, Asuka could see a large black pool beneath the purple Evangelion, it and the buildings around it sinking down into the substance like it was a tar pit. Unit-01 was in the exact center of the circle, and there was no way that he was going to get to the edge before he went under. Fear burned a hole in her gut as she threw herself off the building, jumping to the next one, and then to the next one, knowing for sure what was going to happen next, and knowing what was going to happen after that. She would not be able to do anything about it until she cleared the edge of the pit, though.

"Rei, get him a line! Umbilical cable, something!" She ordered, ignoring the boy's panicked cries. She hit solid ground just as Unit-01's fins vanished from view. Asuka's heart sank as he disappeared, his screams for help cutting off, the antennas built into the shoulder fins unable to transmit beyond the pit. Rei shrieked inarticulately, dropping the cables she had hurriedly gathered, racing for the black pool as fast as she could. Asuka swallowed as she charged at the running Evangelion, screaming at the girl to stop as she tackled her to the side.

"Verdammnt nochmal, Wondergirl! Wenn du hier auch noch reinfällst, kann ich keinem mehr von euch helfen. Don't be stupid!"

Rei and Unit-00 proved to be hard to subdue, the girl bucking wildly, trying to crawl to the umbilical cable that was sinking into the black hole, ignoring the Pilot-Captain's orders. Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the pool vanished, the spherical Angel returning to the sky, floating overhead. The buildings that had only partially sunk into the pool came crashing down and Unit-01's umbilical cable sparked with electricity, cleanly cut. A large circle had been cut into the ground, everything on the perimeter perfectly cut.

Unit-00 went limp as Rei stared at the Angel in mute horror.

A new window opened up in the lower left corner of Asuka's eye, displaying a black screen with 'SOUND ONLY' in red letters. "Girls! Girls! Are you okay? We saw what happened." Misato's worried voice filled the Entry Plug.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Ritsuko ignored everything as she poured over the code that comprised Balthazar, trying to find the source of infection. The two other computers were busy keeping their sister occupied, trying to hack her as she was trying to hack them, throwing firewalls and honey pots at each other. She herself was using as many of the backdoors her mother had left as she could, trying to figure out the puzzle. In the meantime, the command crew was busy demolishing the walls and floors, peeling back panels in order to locate and isolate the numerous cables that intertwined throughout the distributed processing centers. Simply unplugging the supercomputer was not that simple of an option. While the primary cogitators for Balthazar were in the command room, there were seven other main junctions with backup systems spread across several floors and areas of NERV. If it came down to physically destroying the system, it would take days.

They were lucky, however, in that the most recent changes and upgrades to the system were only done in the primary control housing. It narrowed the field down substantially of what could have happened.

They had communications again, at least, Caspar and Melchior wresting that from their sister. Misato was busy trying to figure out what had happened to Unit-01, pouring over the recorded footage and the sensor logs from the Evangelions with Makoto, Aoba, Fuyutuski and Gendo. As much as they needed her out there, Gendo had said, looking remarkably calm, he needed her to fix the MAGI first.

Maya was the only other one inside the housing with her, rechecking the work that had been done during the upgrade. The younger woman was still sniffling, her eyes red with tears. She was blaming herself for the issue with Balthazar, despite her assurances that if she had done something to cause this, she and everyone else had missed it.

If Shinji and Unit-01 still would have been lost if everything had been working normally, well, no one could know for sure. That was what she kept telling the young woman, but her comforting words were falling on deaf ears.

Gendo appeared, having crawled through the mess of components to the diagnostic terminal. He nodded at her in greeting. "Lieutenant Ibuki, Sub-Commander Katsuragi requires your assistance." It was not an order, nor was it a request. Maya squeaked a response back to him and then left as quickly as she could.

"I need her able to think, Gendo." Ritsuko scolded the man, her voice tired. "I can't do anything with her scared out of her wits."

"The men on the surface had to break up a fist fight between Rei and Soryu." He replied, picking up the checklist Maya had left, scanning it.

"Rei started it, didn't she?" she asked, still rapidly typing, shifting between screens and keyboards with ease.

"Rei started it." He confirmed. "She broke Soryu's nose. Soryu gave her a black eye." He sighed, pushing his glasses back up his nose, a frown crossing his face as he glanced around the inside of the chamber. "I know that you've been thinking it over. What can you offer me? We need Unit-01 and Shinji. We must recover them."

"Could be a localized singularity, a black hole, controlled via an AT Field." She suggested, looking up only to scan another one of her mother's notes taped to the wall before returning to her computer screen. "That's just a guess, though. Without any real sensor data to go on, I don't know. I don't know why it hasn't done anything else though." She paused in her typing, looking at him with pity. "Are the girls still on standby?"

His left eye twitching, he nodded. "They've been isolated, for now. I don't need them fighting each other. Rei blames Soryu's plan for Shinji's loss, of course. Soryu feels just as bad, according the men watching them."

"She won't admit it though. Not to Rei, at least." Ritsuko said, frowning as she studied the man. "What's wrong?" she asked, setting the keyboard down.

"I… I feel something. I'm not sure, but ADAM is restless…" he lifted his hand, staring at the glove. Suddenly, his eyes went wide, before narrowing in anger. "There's an Angel here." He hissed at Ritsuko. "In here, inside Balthazar.."

"In here?" she repeated, looking around, her gaze settling in on the cluster of white orbs sitting in their sockets. "The brains! It's got to be one of the brains!"

"SEELE." They said in unison, Gendo reaching out to run his hand over the humming orbs, while Ritsuko headed for the opening in the housing. She would need different tools to remove the orbs than she had brought to scan for software issues, for hacking attempts and foreign intruders.

"What are our options concerning replacement components?" He called after her, his hand resting on one sphere, his voice and face strained as ADAM reacted violently to the presence of the Angel within the core. She looked back, and her eyes caught moving tendrils underneath the glove, and the tendons in Gendo's neck standing out as he attempted to keep the implanted god-thing in check.

"We have emergency replacement parts. An Angel wouldn't affect the code of the system, so we can replace it without worrying about infecting the replacements. I'll be back as soon as possible."

"I will determine if there are any more surprises in here." Gendo replied, lifting his hand from the compromised core, taking a pen and marking it. "Once we have cleaned this mess up, we will then address the issue of the other Angel." He looked back at the scientist. "Say nothing to the others about the culprit being an Angel. We will deal with this on our own. We will discuss what this means later, but we have other, more important things to work out right now."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji sat in the Entry Plug, hugging his knees to his chest, sometimes keeping his eyes squeezed shut and at other times staring at the display of red numerals that floated in front of him.

The walls of the Entry Plug were and opaque white, Unit-01 currently running in life-support mode. According to the display, he had a little over four minutes of battery life in full gain mode, fifteen hours in stand-by mode, and just less than four days in life support mode. He had cut over to stand-by almost immediately after losing the umbilical cable, finding himself aimlessly floating in whatever black abyss the Angel had deposited him in.

Stand-by mode allowed him to see his surroundings, to communicate with others, but there was nothing to see other than the assorted flotsam that had accompanied him into the inky pool, and there was no response to his pleas for help. He couldn't tell if he was falling or floating, although he suspected the latter after the buildings and cars left his sight. The external lights could not penetrate the persistent gloom, and nothing showed up on the infra-red sensors or the night vision mode.

There had been nothing to see anymore for over an hour before he changed over to life-support, replacing the empty black of the outside for the empty white of Entry Plug. He had stared at the featureless white walls of the tube for three minutes before breaking down, sobbing into the LCL, deep gasping coughs racking his frame for hours until he had cried all that he could. Small strings of snot floated in the LCL, not yet drawn into the scrubbers and cleansed from the life giving liquid, but he ignored them as he tried to think. Rei had often told him that every problem had a solution. His father had told him much the same that day in the graveyard, saying that 'Impossible is a word the weak use to excuse their failure'.

If he was going to see Rei again, if he was going to live, if he was going to go home, he would have to figure this out. He could figure this out. He would just have to methodical about it, he thought to himself. He would have to look at the problem systematically, and then decide on a course of action.

His options were few, and mostly revolved around how fast he wanted to drain his Evangelion's batteries, and thus how fast he wanted to die. His other resources were nonexistent. He had no weapons, but that was fine as he had no enemies. He had himself, and he had Unit-01. He had no idea where he was, or where he might go. Unclasping his knees, he reached out to the control yoke and switched back over to stand-by, staring at the same black featureless environment, no reference points for how fast he was moving, or in what direction.

Shinji slumped back in his seat, losing hope as he stared the empty darkness. Rei's words and Father's encouragement aside, his situation was impossible, he thought morosely. There was no escaping this realm of black nothingness. He would die out here, wherever here was, alone. It wasn't right, he thought, red ringed eyes narrowing in anger. It's not fair, he thought, his face twisting into a frown.

"It's not fair," he whispered, his voice tight with anger, the first words he had spoken since giving up on trying to communicate with anyone hours ago.

"It's not fair," he repeated, louder, angrier. It felt good to speak aloud, instead of just thinking his thoughts. "So what if I don't know what I want to do? I still want to live! I want to be with Rei! I want to see Misato, and Asuka, and Toji, Kensuke and Hikari! I want to go to school! I want to see Father, Doctor Akagi, and the Lieutenants!"

He took a deep breath of LCL as he unfolded his legs, moving them back underneath the yoke, sitting up straight in the throne-like seat that dominated the plug.

"I want to live!" he bellowed, shouting at the top of his lungs. "I am going to live!" he screamed, his rage mounting, his pulse racing, his heart pounding in his chest like a hammer. He threw back his head and howled, his lips drawn back in a snarl, teeth bared. A burning sensation in his gut blossomed into existence as he screamed, adrenaline and serotonin dumping into his bloodstream as he worked himself into a frenzy.

"I AM NOT GOING TO LET THIS FUCKING ANGEL STOP ME!"

Unit-01, floating through the midnight abyss where the dead stars hung, threw back its head and howled the song of its rage to the uncaring darkness, eyes burning like nuclear fires.

The last thing that Shinji saw as he became the Berserker was the universe around him exploding into light and fire. The Berserker growled in dreadful anticipation as it stretched through the black, a pair of burning wings extending from his back, slowly at first, but then faster and growing brighter as they began to beat, fanning the flames of the birth of the universe.

The Berserker had no concept of time, no understanding of the linear sequence of cause and effect. Past, present and future were things that had no power over him. Wings beating, the godchild began searching through the burning chaos of the big bang for his home, swimming through the empyrean. He would not find it, for the star that the Earth would form around would not even be born for trillions of years.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka stared at her reflection in the mirror; gingerly touching the angry red lines that ran across her nose. She winced as pain flared through her face at the contact.

It had been a good punch, she thought to herself, pushing away from the bathroom wall. Rei had wasted no time after ejecting from her Evangelion, running across the tarmac leaving a trail of LCL behind her to sucker punch her while she was busy trying to explain what had happened to the worried security detail and technicians. There had been no warning from the girl, no angry shouts, and no accusations. She was glaring, the angry expression frozen on her usually blank face throughout the entire fight, even when getting socked in the left eye.

The security guards had a hard time trying to separate them, both girls slick with LCL and their plugsuits offering no handholds, the tight form-fitting garments slippery even when dry. But the two teenage girls were no match for the fully grown men who eventually peeled them apart.

Asuka shook her head as she wrapped her ice pack in paper towels. Misato had called to let them know that the MAGI problem was taken care of and that she would be joining them on the surface soon. Once the Sub-Commander was here, she was sure to lecture them. Asuka wasn't interested in the woman's incriminations, or Rei's reprisal. Even with as annoying as it was, she deserved the broken nose.

The boy had done it to himself, she thought, but it should have been her there on point. She was the leader, she was the most experienced, and she was the one who had come up with the plan. She wouldn't have panicked and attacked early, although she wasn't sure if it would have made a difference. Nothing they had done seemed to have an effect on the Angel during the initial attack or when it had become the pit Unit-01 had disappeared into. She wasn't able to save him, but she had managed to keep Rei from diving in after him to be taken as well. She shouldn't have let him talk her into letting him take the lead.

The last sensor data relayed from Unit-01 was of dark realm of nothingness, no detectable atmosphere, no gravity, no light, and no temperature. Where ever the Angel had deposited him, they had clues as to where it might be, except that there was nothing there.

The only verification they had that it had been the Angel was the Pattern Blue spectra emitted by the hole. When it vanished, the white and black sphere returning to the sky overhead, so had the energy signature. That the Angel had taken the Evangelion was no mystery. Why it hadn't moved since then was, though, and that was one of the reasons Misato was coming up to surface. The MAGI were busy fixing Balthazar, erasing every last trace of the incursion. Doctor Akagi would be occupied for a little while longer with the clean up before she would be able to assist.

It would be up to them to try and figure it out. It was up to her to try to figure it out. She had to fix her mistake; she had to get the boy back. If she could do that, then it wasn't so bad, it wasn't so terrible that he had been lost because of her.

Vier, Drei, Zwei, Eins!

In a little traveled part of the universe, in a collection of stars that would eventually be named the 'Milky Way', a small planetary system hung in an even lesser traveled arm of the spiral galaxy. Around a young middle sized star orbited a little blue ball that had caught the eye of a Guardian, a young member of an ancient group of caretakers who had been created by an even more ancient race of being to spread and cultivate life throughout the universe. The Guardian, who would eventually take the name of Lilith, had chosen the blue marble to be her garden in this system.

High above the fragile blue planet, out past the red planet, past the green one, a new light had appeared in the night sky several lunar cycles ago, moving against the regular cycle of the stars. In recent weeks it had appeared to Lilith that the new light had been moving closer to her little corner of creation, and it had piqued her curiosity. It had been a long time since she had seen another Guardian, this arm of the universe largely empty and untraveled, but there was no reason that another one could not have decided to come out this way. Her head tilted to one side as curiosity gave way to confusion. It was no Seed that approached, the brightly burning light much too small to be a Guardian's home. It was also moving erratically, approaching the green planet much too fast, and much too close.

Leaning on her staff, Lilith shooed one of her pets away as the huge meat eating beast rubbed its head against her leg, never taking her eyes from the falling light. Sure enough, it began to arc down towards the large green sphere, picking up even more speed. Almost close enough for her to make out, the burning shape exploded, lines of fire trailing out behind it just before it was eclipsed by the planet. Almost as soon as it vanished, the green planet was wreathed in fire, bursting into flame before shattering apart into a rapidly expanding cloud of burning debris. From across the airless void, Lilith could hear a new song, vastly different from her own chorus, spreading out like a shockwave. It was a song of wrath, of power, of glorious destruction. A song of reckoning, of life and love and hate.

It had cleared the ruined planet's bones, somewhat slowed by its passage through the dead world, but now to Lilith's growing horror, the thing was now aimed at her little world. Whatever it was, it was shaped like a Guardian, with arms and legs and a head, but it looked by be comprised entirely of fire, with a pair of burning wings beating, fighting against the void. It was as if the Masters had grown bored and shaped a Guardian from a star. She saw it open its mouth, and its song reverberated in the air, spooking her pets, which began to flee as an overwhelming sense of terror hit them like a tidal wave.

High overhead, the Fire Guardian began to spin, still screaming the Song of Terror. Lilith watched it as it tried to control its descent, grateful that the Masters had not seen fit to gift the Guardian with a staff, its hands empty. She hefted her staff, the intertwined and interlocked red rods shifting to become a spear, measuring the rapidly diminishing distance. She would not allow this planet to suffer the same fate as the green one, she whispered to the other Guardian as she took aim. With a powerful throw, she sent the spear ripping through the air with a crack of thunder, exiting the atmosphere on an intercept course to stop the Guardian. The staves were the single most powerful tool given by the Masters to the Guardians, serving as a tool to aid them in their task of tending the planets and the life they spread, and as a most potent weapon that could destroy anything.

The Masters had regretted this during the great uprising, when several Guardians had turned against the Masters, killing them before other Guardians rose to their defense. She had only second-hand information about the uprising, having picked a remote part of the universe to tend too, but if the Masters had made more of these fearsome things, then she could understand why the others had cast them down.

Lilith trembled in fear and shock as her spear was deflected, a glowing field of yellow light appearing ahead of the Guardian, the weapon bouncing off of it to fall back to her planet. She held her hand out, calling the spear back, the red weapon returning to her hand just as the Guardian hit the upper atmosphere, the slender form vanishing into clouds of burning flame. The Song of Terror was louder now, the screaming chorus overpowering and debilitating. She felt dizzy and lightheaded, and she clutched at her head, trying to force the song out.

The earth trembled violently once it hit, sending her sprawling as the ground bucked and shook. In the distance as huge plume of smoke and debris could be seen, clouds of lightning and fire following along the path the Guardian had taken in its fall. Lilith picked herself back up, her spear jumping up into her fist as she began to run towards the impact sight.

The pillar of smoke and fire towered overhead, and the heat it gave off was noticeable from a distance, plants and animals turned into burning piles of ash and salt. Lilith ran faster as a figure emerged from the smoke, no longer appearing to be made of fire, but the armor it wore still white hot, the terrible visage grinning at her with bared teeth, a long horn jutting up from the front of its mask. Lilith slowed her advance, staring at the nightmarish Other, who was clearly no Guardian. Its massively armored shoulders were cooling faster than the rest of it, becoming blackened metal. To her horror, still just barely visible past the ash, the scorched metal bore a reflection of her face, the mask of the Guardians superimposed over a pair of bones. The wings on its back vanished, their fire somehow extinguished.

Whatever this Other was, it was no Guardian. It was something made to kill, to destroy them. Possibly it was a relic from the uprising, cast out by the Masters to put an end to their unruly children. Perhaps it had tumbled for eons throughout the universe, until it had found her. Lilith shook with terror as it opened its jaws, the articulated mouth of the armored face framing the predator's mouth inside, howling its fearsome song, imposing its grim reality over-top the one she had carefully cultivated for centuries. This was a Destroyer, she decided, something created to wipe life from the universe. The Destroyer's armor was a deep purple, blackened by its entry into the atmosphere, pitted and scored by its passage through deep space. It looked old to Lilith, who could see such things as the passage of time, older than even the Master that had awakened her and set her on her journey. This was no creation of the Masters. It was an antediluvian horror dredged up from some dark abyss where only dead stars hung.

The Berserker glowered at the Angel before it, not recognizing the pale skinned giant his pilot had seen deep in the roots of the earth. Lilith stood complete, her skin white marble, bird's skull watching him cautiously. She was lithe and graceful, her form slender despite the fact that she stood as tall as the Evangelion. The Berserker took none of that into account, nor did he notice the extreme lack of human habitation or other Evangelions.

All he knew was that he had been attacked by an Angel.

All he saw was an Angel stood in front of him, waiting.

He had no weapons save himself, but that was fine, for his enemy stood before him, ready and waiting.

With a howl, the Berserker charged, the song of his soul rising up in a deafening and deadly refrain, the light of his soul a burning shield held before him. He had no weapons save for himself, but that was fine for he was the deadliest weapon of all.

Raising her own chorus in answer, Lilith's spear became a sword, and she charged. This was her domain, and she would not allow this interloper to continue its interference with her work.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"A what?" Misato asked, staring at the ceiling, and then at the screen that showed the floating orb.

"It's a shadow." Ritsuko said again, draining the last of her coffee. "A three dimensional shadow, reflecting a four dimensional body. That's why you can't see past it, but why it doesn't block sunlight. The Angel's real body is the black pool. After the initial reports, I had thought it was a localized singularity, controlled by the Angel's AT Field, which manifested briefly, around the edges of the Angel."

The screen changed to show the spike of energy around the circumference of the Angel, overlaid with the sickening image of Unit-01 vainly trying to escape.

"The Angel's body is only a few nanometers in depth, and is six hundred meters in diameter, as you can see here, and it began to absorb everything that came into contact with it. This was a deliberate attack on Unit-01, as it was centered directly on the Evangelion. The Angel 'moved' into position before attacking, as evidenced by the movement of the shadow.

The Angel is not manifesting as a singularity, however. There is a lack of energy emissions that accompany such phenomena, and the presence of another sort of evidence. The Angel's body is actually comprised of a Dirac Sea."

"A what?" Misato repeated, staring at her friend, her voice lacking energy. Rei and Asuka sat on either side of her, each one focused on the board and screens, pointedly ignoring the other. Both looked absolutely miserable to the blond doctor who had come to know both girl's moods and expressions.

"A Dirac Sea." Ritsuko began, pushing back from the table to get a refill from the coffee maker, "is a sea of particles that is infinite in size. First theorized by Paul Dirac, and then used by Carl Anderson to predict and then detect positrons, NERV successfully created a miniature one in a controlled environment for thirty three minutes a few years ago, as a byproduct of our work on the S2 Engine. At the time-"

"Rits," Misato interrupted, "that's all very interesting, but what does it mean for us? What does it mean to me, what does it mean to the pilots and what does it mean to the boy who's lost somewhere inside of it?"

"It means that we have to get the Angel to show itself before we can harm it. Further attacks at long range on the shadow have provoked no reaction from the Angel. It has also taken no further steps in attacking NERV or attempting to locate the Second Angel." She sighed as she sat down at the conference table. "Our next step is to use an AT Field on the shadow, and see how it reacts. Towards this end, I suggest using one of the Evangelions to 'ping' the Angel while the other provides overwatch. The tactical plan of course, is entirely up to you."

Misato sighed. "It sounds good. Unit-02 will be on point. Unit-00 will provide backup." She looked over at the Section-2 representative. "How are we on the evacuation of the city?"

"It's proceeding on schedule. We should be complete in forty three minutes, barring any unforeseen events. There was no damage to any of the shelters during the attack, and damage to the city infrastructure was minimal and has no effect on the evacuation plans."

Misato nodded. "Good. We'll start as soon as Section-2 gives the all clear." She back at the screen that showed the Angel's supposed shadow, the bizarrely patterned sphere floating in the sky, an optical illusion that defied the natural laws of the universe. "Hopefully he'll have switched off from full gain once he went in. I want a multi-spectrum communications relay ready to irradiate the Angel with signals. If he's in there listening for a call, I want his phone to be ringing off the hook." She looked back at the security man, locking gazes with him despite the sunglasses he wore indoors. "Get someone on the line with the UN or the JSSDF, hell, both of them. I want an AWACS in the air overhead. I want the sensor bank in Unit-01 to light up like a Christmas tree once we get the Angel to show itself. If he's alive in there I want him to know that we're looking for him."

"I'll see what I can do." He said, pushing away from the table, plugging his earpiece back into place. "If there's a sympathetic ear at the UN we'll find it."

"I'll get the communications relay set up." Ritsuko said as she gulped her coffee, draining the entire cup. "We'll get his attention. He might not be able to talk back, but he'll know that we're trying." She looked around at the assembled group, before nodding to Lieutenant Shigeru. "There's something else that we noticed, when going over the sensor logs. We're still working on developing our understanding of the situation, but you should at least be aware of it."

"Well," the pony-tailed technician began a little nervously, "the thing with Dirac Seas is that they've been theorized as potentially containing an entire other universe inside of them, since they are bigger on the inside than they are on the outside. As Doctor Akagi said, the sea is infinite in size. Unit-01 may have been transported to another universe. Just as the Evangelion vanished, there was a huge burst of photons and neutrinos, lasting for half a second. Then, a second before the Angel's shadow reappeared overhead there was another burst, but this time of free quarks."

"Normally, quarks are not found by themselves in nature." Maya said as the other lieutenant paused. "They form baryons and mesons. Unfortunately, the Evangelions are not normally equipped with a robust sensor array, so we were unable to discover more. Only because of some of the modifications made to Unit-02 were we able to even see the free quarks forming baryons. Because of the issue with the MAGI, no sensor data was recorded from the systems in place around Tokyo-3, but we did a hard download of the logs from the three satellites we moved in overhead to replace the ones lost during the last battle."

"They were unable to tell us more about the quarks, but they did pick up a regular cycle of electromagnetic radiation bursts, similar to a pulsar. These bursts, plus the appearance of free quarks and the other particles, suggests that cosmic rays were being emitted from the Angel."

"What this means, well, to be honest, we don't know." Ritsuko said. "The Dirac Sea that was created in the laboratory over at NERV-Las Vegas did not exhibit any activity like this. There is one more thing, though. We can't be entirely sure, because of the lack of sensors in the area and because of the mess with the MAGI, but we think that we detected a small stream of particles that exhibited space-like four momentum."

"That's not possible, is it?" Misato asked, staring at her friend. "I don't remember everything from college, but I'm pretty sure that that's not possible." She stared at the Angel. "What does that mean for Shinji and Unit-01?"

"Like I said, we don't know. The MAGI are uncertain. We won't know more until the Angel reappears, but it may be difficult or outright impossible for Unit-01 to escape by itself."

"We can try to use an AT Field on the Angel's body." Asuka suggested, the usual fiery energy in her voice conspicuously absent. "We may be able to build a tunnel in it, like drilling for oil on an offshore platform. Shinji might be able to escape through the hole."

"A Dirac Sea is comprised of particles with negative energy. If exposed to an overwhelming amount of particles with positive energy, it may trigger a matter-annihilation reaction." Rei offered, her voice calm. "If thus wounded, the Angel may seek to expel foreign bodies and forcibly eject Unit-01."

Misato looked at both girls, who stared back at her, each still ignoring the other pilot. Rei was emotionless, but the blank stare was ruined by the deep purple bruise that dominated her face, her left eye barely open. Asuka's impatient glare was offset by the red lines across the break in her nose, and the wads of red-soaked tissue paper shoved into her nostrils. Neither was in ideal condition to pilot, but Rei had piloted in worse conditions.

So had Shinji, who had actually come up with the concept of using the AT Field to actively probe for enemies, and the shape of the waveform that Asuka would have to create in order to try and rescue the boy. They would be fine, as long as they worked together. They would be fine, as long as concentrated on the task at hand.

"I'll consider it. Right now we're trying to see if we can get the Angel to show itself. If it does, we'll go from there. Rei, go and put some ice on that. Asuka, stay here. I want to talk to you."

Vier, Drei, Zwei, Eins!

Lilith fled across her world, pursued by the Berserker. Fear gripped the Guardian as she raced through burning lands and freezing waters, the verdant world she had been shepherding quickly becoming a ruined wasteland as their battles took a toll on the already wounded planet. This was not supposed to happen, she wailed, scrambling up a mountain, sending boulders down at the abhorrent beast that followed. The glowing shield that had protected it was an extension and physical manifestation of its chorus, and she had quickly adopted the trick for her own use. It was somewhat tiring, but versatile. The beast clearly was more experienced at using the shield however, and its unreasoning anger and rage lent it immense strength. She could only imagine the destruction the beast surely had visited upon other planets, and on other Guardians.

She had tried to use her pets against it, but most of her children were useless against the fearsome song of the titan. Only the apex predators could be urged by her song to come against it, but the beast had simply torn them to shreds, only inconvenienced by their attacks. She had never really expected them to do much against the beast, but their sacrifice bought her precious time.

At the top of the mountain, temporarily safe from attack as a pack of her monstrous pets swarmed the Destroyer; she changed her staff into a knife and turned the infinitely sharp blade to her skin, drawing forth a gush of deep orange blood, splattering into the dirt. Working quickly, she shaped the bloody clay into new forms, her nimble fingers creating monstrous creatures to battle the rampaging horror. What she was planning was insane, for what she was about to do had been forbidden by the Masters long ago, when they had first charged the Guardians with tending the planets. Picking her knife back up, she cut into her breast, seeking the core of her being, the ruby red orb of her heart, carefully scraping it with the blade.

Taking the shavings of her core, she rolled them into miniature orbs and implanted them into her new children. Their forms shuddered, and she heard their songs come into life as they were born. They quickly grew in size, and they turned their faces to her, wearing the same bone mask as she, their young songs lifted in question, before turning to watch the slaughter occurring below them.

Her children went scrambling down the hillside, singing their songs of battle, and she felt pangs of sorrow, for they were incomplete things, not true Guardians, but more than the lives that she had carefully brought about on this planet and the others that she had visited. They existed only to fight the beast. If they lived past it, they would seek completion, and she had nothing to offer them.

Her sorrow intensified as she watched them attack, their choruses manifesting as glowing shields, but not keeping them entirely safe from the Destroyer. She set about creating more, drawing on designs from other worlds, from other Guardians, giving them larger parts of her core. They took to the sky, singing triumphantly as they joined in the fray.

Lilith reshaped her staff back into its normal shape, leaning on it for support as her body slowly repaired the self inflicted damage. Her children were wearing the beast down, huge parts of its armor ripped away. It was intensely different from her for all that they were similarly shaped. Its face was no elegant mask of bone, but akin to her pets, pliable and expressive. It snarled in fury, lips drawing back to reveal flat teeth, and its eyes were a brilliant green. Large pieces of armor seemed to be implanted in it, replacing large sections of flesh, pale from years locked away from light, hidden underneath the armor meant to imprison as much as to protect.

It must have felt her gaze, because malevolent green eyes burning with unholy light locked onto her, and it bellowed a challenge at her as it tore at her children. She shook her head in disbelief, for she no longer thought that the Masters, even in desperation and fear of death, had made this thing.

**WHO ARE YOU? WHY HAVE YOU COME HERE? WHAT DO YOU WANT?**

The Song of Terror raged louder than ever before, and wings of fire exploded out of its back. A shockwave of fire and light slammed into her children, knocking them back and killing some as the glowing field scythed through them. It took to the sky, ignoring the others as they continued their attacks, intent on reaching her.

**WHO ARE YOU?** She screamed at it again, twisting her staff back into a spear, her fear mounting. It opened its mouth again, then closed it, working its jaw before howling its terrible scream again.

The song of the beast changed, modulating differently than before, the screaming chorus coming together in a thunderous voice that left her reeling.

_**I AM!**_

_**I AM!**_

_**I AM! **_

He slammed into her hastily raised shield, knocking her off of her feet, both of them tumbling down the mountain, throwing punches and grappling with the other. Her staff went flying off away from the fighting pair, forgotten as they vied for supremacy.

She tore a large piece of metal from his head, his flesh bubbling and spreading over the wound, skin replacing the removed armor. Most of his protective armor remained intact, if dented and torn, but the more that they fought, the more was removed and the more he came to resemble her, apart from the horrific looking face of pliable flesh.

They came to a rolling stop at the base of the mountain, Lilith managing to come out on top. She grabbed his throat in both hands, squeezing with enough pressure to crush boulders to gravel. He fought in vain, hands trying to push her away. Keeping one hand in a death grip around his neck, she reached up and called her staff back to her.

This proved to be a mistake, as he caught the weapon as it flew through the air. Closing his fist around it, he swung the metal rod around, catching her on the side of her head, knocking her off of him. She grabbed hold of the weapon, tugging it back towards her, ripping it from his grasp.

Fire exploded around them as her children continued their attack. The beast who claimed to be IAM spread his wings of flame once more, raising his song again to strike at his foes. A burning wing caught her full on, smashing into her like a tidal wave. Picking herself back up, she saw him rip the arms off one of her children, using the green and white limbs as weapons against others.

Hate boiled over deep within her, her song becoming dark and mournful. Her staff twisted around in her hands, the psychoreactive metal forming a new two pointed spear. Lightning crackling in her own eyes, she advanced on the burning firestorm of twirling wings, her children throwing themselves into the fray with wild reckless abandon, overwhelming IAM.

Shrieking with rage, she lifted the lance overhead, and slammed it into his back, straight through his midsection.

There was a massive explosion of light and fire, a huge pillar of flame screaming up into the sky, almost as large as when he had first landed. Lilith was thrown backwards, and almost all of her children that remained died. Her song almost extinguished, she crawled back to watch the flame burn for days, before finally dying out. Her children that remained crawled away, weary and wounded, to find some safe haven to recuperate.

She was too weak to call them back to her, to take them back into her being, to regain completion.

When the fire finally died, the titan remained, her staff shoved through him, impaling him to the ground. He was hunched over, the lance sticking straight up out of his back. Her spirits plunged upon seeing him, and she could hear the barest murmur of his song, somehow still alive.

She could do nothing more now, though. She needed to rest and regain her strength before she could deal with him. Crawling across the ruined world was painful and exhausting, but she finally arrived at her Seed. Sealing it up behind her, she sent it sinking down into the planet's surface, seeking the warmth of the molten core as the surface world began to cool.

While she slept, so did her children, locked away in the far corners of the world as time passed and planet changed. She had done her duty well, and the lives that had survived the cataclysmic battle spreading out and repopulating. The age of the dinosaur had ended, and now the mammals ascended, eventually taking on the form of their ancient mother and her foe and long lost son.

The Berserker, Unit-01, ADAM, barely alive, accelerated the cooling process that held the world in its grip, drawing precious energy and heat from the environment around it. Eventually, a massive continent of ice began to form around him, the great frozen land of Antarctica. There, locked in ice and restrained by the Lance of Longinus, Shinji and Unit-01 slept as an imprisoned god waiting to be freed.

They would wait through long eons, deathless and dreaming, poisoning the minds of man with psychic fallout as did Lilith and the Angels, all dreaming troubled dreams of that cataclysmic day, and their eventual final reckoning.

Mankind leapt and grew as the ancient gods slept, and the Illuminati formed around the dark and troubled dreams of man. It would be a long time however, before the rulers of mankind found the proof they were looking for in the depths in the earth, but it was not until Doctor Katsuragi's third expedition did they find the interloper, the outsider, ADAM, the Angel of War and Destruction. It was not until that day that the dream of godhood became a very real possibility.

The hubris of Man knew no bounds that day, Kiel Lorenz standing before frozen god with greed in his eyes and ambition in his heart.

It would not be until the day of Second Impact that Man was punished for that hubris when the Berserker was released. Man's grasp had exceeded his reach, and the men and women of GEHIRN would find themselves unable to control the penultimate product of their eventual successors, NERV.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Warmth blossomed up inside the titan; the giant trembling almost immediately after the Lance was removed. The scientists noted with interest and excitement as they measured the morphogenic field springing into existence, validating the Weissman Principle as the glowing field manifested around the giant.

Excitement quickly gave way to terror as the Berserker woke up, still in the middle of battle. Still lost in the battle-rage, he struck at everything in the area in his bid for freedom. Finally reaching the surface, he threw his arms in the sky, the Song of Terror lifted in joyous celebration, wings of fire exploding out of his back. The frozen continent was no more, lost in the heat and fire of his awakening, but out in the boiling waters a small capsule floated, the hatch sliding open as a young girl sat upright, clutching at her wounds.

The Berserker's gaze met with Misato Katsuragi's, two dark eyes that had already seen more devastation than any child's should have locking onto a pair burning with nuclear fire that had dealt out more destruction than any child's should have.

The Berserker was gripped with a sense of uncertainty and wrongness. He shuddered with fearful recognition.

Inside the Throne of the Soul, Shinji Ikari's blue eyes dilated as he screamed, spreading his AT Field, his chorus, his soul, out and then wrapping it tight around him like a cloak as every fiber of his being wished to be home.

Screaming, the beast that was Unit-01, now named ADAM, vanished from the world in a pillar of fire.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"We may not have an option, Kozo." Gendo said, sitting at his desk, staring at the black tinted window. In the darkened gloom of the office, the assembled group could not make out his expression, and while his voice betrayed nothing of what he was possibly feeling, they could imagine that he was torn up inside with grief.

Maybe.

"There is no way that we would be able to hide the Lance or its properties and abilities from the UN and the rest of the world. We still have other options, other avenues to explore," the older man argued, although his heart wasn't in it. He thoroughly disliked playing the part of devil's advocate, and he knew that time was quickly running out for them.

"Even if the pilot switched over to life support mode immediately after entering the Dirac Sea, he will only have five hours of battery life left come dawn." Ritsuko said, looking unusually disheveled, her knees drawn up to her chest, her arms clasped around them. "It's more likely that he'll have two, maybe three hours left, at most."

"The UN and the JSSDF both have declined to provide any assistance." Misato said, her voice dripping with disgust and weary from lack of sleep. "They say that the issue is not their concern at this time. No national or civilian interests are being threatened right now. If that changes, then they will take action. They've been keeping an eye on us though. They've got the AWACs I requested up there, plus at least a pair of fighters in the area, sometimes more."

"It matters little, so long as the Angel refuses to show itself." Gendo replied. "As long as it sits there showing only its shadow, there is nothing we can do to it."

"If we do not use the Lance we will need to use our more exotic weapons." Kozo said, his voice pleading. "They will not stand by if we use nuclear weapons, nor will they allow us to use an EMP. We barely got away with it last time, and that was because we weren't under such scrutiny. And there's no guarantee that those will even work. They will question the Lance yes, but they won't declare war on us over it. If we are to recover Unit-01 and the boy, we will have to use it."

"What do the MAGI say?"

"Undecided. There is a chance that the Angel will react to the highly energetic particles released by nuclear weapons or antimatter-matter annihilation, but the damage done to Tokyo-3 would be immense, as would the political fallout." Ritsuko buried her face in her knees, sighing. "It is bad enough that we have sole ownership and control of the Evangelions. Should they discover that we also have nuclear and antimatter weapons, they will move in to seize our assets. They will not sit still for that. The entire world would turn against us."

"Whatever we decide to do, we have to do it soon." Misato said. "Like Ritsuko said, Shinji's time is quickly running out. Right now, the best option sounds like this Lance. We've exhausted all other options. If this Angel cares about the girl's AT Fields at all, then it hasn't shown it. The difficulties of engaging an enemy that's almost two dimensional aside, assaulting an optical illusion is nigh impossible. It's not even shrugging off our probing attacks; the attacks don't even touch it." She paused, staring at the Commander's shadowed form. "The girls are getting worried. Rei, obviously is for striking it with everything we got. She actually suggested using antimatter weapons in our initial probes. Asuka wants to redeem herself, and the best way to do that is to rescue him." She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "She's taking the first combat loss pretty bad. She's eating herself up on the inside, but she's trying to show a brave front. You know how she is."

"Weakness is to be despised, to be eradicated?" Kozo suggested. "I take it that you talked to her about the realities of commanding combat troops, and your first loss."

"I did," she confirmed. "It was during the Korean fiasco. I lost a tank during the initial press on Pyongyang, with all its crew." She took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly. "I told her that there's no time to mourn right after, that the commanding officer has to carry on, that she can't freeze up. We have to mourn later, after the fight. It's different, this time. We still have a chance at not having to mourn, but that chance gets smaller and smaller every minute that we sit here waiting, and she knows it. She doesn't want to mourn him; she wants to see him back home safe and sound."

"We all want him home safe and sound." Ritsuko said. "But we haven't gotten any telemetry on the Angel. We haven't been able to verify the original sensor readings. Just like when it first showed up, it's like it's not even there. Whatever we choose to do, it will be a shot in the dark with no guarantee of working. The Lance is the only thing we know for sure that will have an effect on the Angel."

They sat in silence for several minutes, time seeming to stretch out. They traded glances with each other, looking sometimes to the Commander.

"Use the Lance. Once the operation is complete, return it to the Chamber of Guf. We will start as soon as it's dark. This will be a blackout operation. Do everything we can to hide the existence of the Lance."

"It won't be easy, and it might not even be possible for to do so with the assets they have in place overhead." Misato pointed out. "We may need to come up with some sort of distraction to divert their attention."

"Raise the gun towers." Kozo suggested. "Dump munitions into the shadow, into the Angel if it shows itself. Have both Evangelions equipped for melee. The Lance could be just another spear for all they know."

"Nightfall is in three hours. How long beforehand do you want us to prepare the Lance?"

"As soon as the sun is below the horizon."

Misato nodded. "The girls are resting right now. I'll brief them up on the plan. Who do we want to use the Lance?"

"Rei."

Misato winced slightly but said nothing, only nodding before she stood and left the room. Asuka wasn't going to like it, she thought to herself. Unfortunately for her the Commander didn't care if people liked his decisions, and he had final say over everything, from operations to research to staffing. His word was law. The man probably wasn't snubbing the girl, choosing Rei over her for the decisive part of the operation, but she wasn't going to see it that way. The man had his reasons, even if they were obscured and unfathomable at times.

Sighing as she leaned against the elevator's wall, wishing that she could have spent the afternoon napping like the pilots. Three days of ceaseless probing attacks and feints, of experiments that grew more and more desperate as time crept on and the Angel continued to ignore them, sitting there had taken their toll. She had gotten barely any sleep, and while the girls resisted, she had forced them to rest, and to eat.

It was bad enough that they had beaten each other up, she didn't need them falling apart from hunger or exhaustion.

She frowned as her phone chirped at her. Pulling it out of her pocket, she grimaced as she saw the message was from Kaji. Whatever mysterious task the Commander had sent the man on, she doubted that it required him to contact her.

Misato – you need to see something in Terminal Dogma. Look for a place called Purgatory.

She frowned, staring at the message before deleting it. Whatever he thought she needed to see could wait until after the Angel had been dealt with. She was too busy to deal with his spy games right now, and he was walking a fine line with her. Ritsuko's assurances that the man couldn't have been behind the upset with the MAGI, she wouldn't put it past him.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Both girls ate quickly, shoveling the noodles into their mouths, eager to get the operation underway, not wanting to waste time eating. Misato was adamant about them eating, however, saying that it would probably be hours again until they got another chance.

Misato looked over at the two security men who were sitting at the room's other table as they stiffened before leaping to their feet, throwing their chairs back.

"Something's happening with the Angel!" one of them said, rushing to the door, throwing it open, waving to the pilots who were already in motion, running after the men, Misato following close behind. They were stationed on the ground floor of one of the buildings that served as an entryway into the Geo-Front, the Evangelions kneeling just outside. In the distance, the black and white shadow flickered like static on a video screen. A low keening wail emanated from it, echoing and reverberating weirdly through the otherwise empty city. The sun, sitting low in the sky, lent a reddish cast to the scene, although the dark storm clouds currently boiling out of nothingness above the Angel, lightning flicking from cloud to cloud, bright flashes of actinic light that had no accompanying sound. The Angel's cry drowned out all other sounds, overpowering the rumbling thunder of the storm clouds and the screams of jet engines as JSSDF planes circled overhead.

The Angel's shadow flickered and shuddered, the wail becoming louder and louder as they watched, momentarily struck dumb as a rhythmic pattern began to emerge from the plaintiff sound. Misato gave them each a shove, and the girls immediately resumed their dash to the waiting Evangelions.

The wail's pattern changed suddenly, becoming louder and faster, the sound maddening familiar to everyone who heard it. It shifted in timbre and pitch, moving to sound like a thousand screaming violins, backed by an immense choir. It was getting to be almost unbearably loud, and some of the men and women assembled were already clapping their hands over their ears, tears streaming down their faces.

Asuka scrambled up the stairs to the waiting Entry Plug, but stopped to stare just before climbing in as the Angel's shadow began to bleed, lines of blood oozing out of the black lines. Thick and dark, it pooled beneath the shadow, which was now expanding and contracting slightly. Ignoring Unit-00 as it began to stand up, Rei's Entry Plug sinking inwards, the armored plate clamping down in place over the tube, still watching openmouthed in shock as red fire appeared, rippling across the sphere in a burning wave.

A new sound joined the already deafening cacophony, an instantly recognizable roaring howl that sent shivers down the spines of everyone that heard it.

"No… Please, no…" she whispered, her knuckles tightening around the railing, dread and fear blossoming in her gut. "Not again…" she said, staring at the spasming Angel, not feeling the blood running down her face, tasting but not feeling the hot coppery gush of fluid from her nose. She collapsed as her legs gave out, shudders running through her body as Lilith's implanted memories came boiling up, unwanted and debilitating. She whimpered, clutching the railing, unable to tear her eyes away from the burning orb.

The Angel's shadow convulsed again as the berserker scream of Unit-01 became louder, drowning out all other noise and thought. The side of the Angel pushed outward, the sphere deforming, before the long arm of Unit-01 broke through amidst a spray of blood and flame. The fingers curled into claws, the arm reach back to tear at the wound, its other arm ripping a new hole in the Angel, gouts of flame exploding up into the air.

The shadow vanished, the black hole reappearing underneath where it had been, Unit-01 halfway out of the Dirac Sea, stretching through the black fluid, a ruined mess of an Evangelion. Where the Angel's body had been a placid pool of super-fluidic particles before, now it was a boiling cauldron of black waves, washing over the enraged titan. It looked as if it had been to hell and back, its armor completely ruined, large pieces of it missing altogether. Black waves of fluidic particles lapped at the sides of the distressed beast as the Angel tried to draw Unit-01 back into itself. Fires poured off of the titan in waves, its open mouth a roaring inferno and its eyes a pair of burning stars. The NERV personnel on ground turned to flee from the unbearable heat and noise, but Asuka lay where she was, unable to move.

Wings of fire exploded out of Unit-01's back, giant feathery wings of flame that spread out, beating the air into a firestorm. Triumphantly roaring, Unit-01 ripped itself up out of the black pool of the Angel's body, disappearing into the pillar of light that accompanied the Angel's death.

"What is it?" she whispered aloud, unable to hear herself. "What is Unit-01? What are the Evangelions?" She began to sob as she convulsed, the pain of eons old memories flooding through her again.

High up overhead, Unit-01 flew on its wings of flame, rising up into the sky, shrieking in pain and anger. Unit-00 stood staring, unable to move, both it and its pilot trying to think, trying to analyze the situation.

_Can we communicate with him? I am not seeing his friend or foe signaling information. His communications systems may be damaged. There is substantial damage to his armor and containment systems._

_**I am reading serious fluctuations in his AT Field. Something's wrong with him. There may be serious damage to Unit-01's internal systems as well. He is not shielding himself. His entire field is supporting those wings, which while neat, aren't really needed right now. How are we going to get him back down here? **_

_I am not certain how we are to accomplish this without causing further damage to Unit-01. Do you know if he has ears?_

_**He might. Mine were removed, but our systems are not the same. They did a lot of different things when building him. It's worth a shot at least. Just don't shout anything stupid. **_

_I am not going to shout anything-_

Both girl and Evangelion gasped when the light vanished, the fire that cloaked the Evangelion suddenly snuffing out, Unit-01 going limp and falling eight hundred feet to slam into the ground in the midst of the conflagration consuming the center of Tokyo-3, blood spraying out in a red mist behind him.

The two fighter jets that had shot down Unit-01 banked left and right as Unit-00 flung cars up after them, the JSSDF pilots screaming panicked cries into their radios back to their home airbase. Rei, ignoring the shouted orders from Central Dogma, turning her communications suite off and chased after the jets, throwing everything that she could pick up. In many cases, it was pieces of burning buildings. A piece of concrete and steel tore off the left wing of the lead jet, sending the plane spiraling out of control to crash into the outskirts of the city.

The second fighter cut into a tight loop, race-tracking around to open fire on the blue and white war machine, strafing it with the 20mm cannon, the rounds slamming ineffectually against reinforced armor. The pilot pulled up as the weapons officer fired a pair of two thousand pound bombs, the laser guided munitions arcing back and detonating atop the glowing AT Field. Fire and smoke boiled up around the untouched giant, which Rei sent striding out of the explosion, a frown on her face and anger in her heart. The one downed aircraft was not enough to sooth her sense of vengeance or outrage.

None of the armament buildings were currently deployed, but Rei had memorized all of their locations, as well as what each one held. There was a wide variety of available, all manner of melee and ranged weapons to fit any plan of attack, and they were scattered about the city in strategic locations. No matter where the pilots might find themselves, they would be able to arm themselves for any situation. From where she stood, Rei had her pick of knives, an axe, two pallet rifles and a missile launcher.

It was of course a much easier matter of getting to the weapons when the buildings were above ground, but Unit-00 proved more than capable of ripping the armored roof off the building. Reaching in, she pulled the missile launcher up, bringing it to her shoulder as she sighted in on the F-15. As the warning tone sounded in the cockpit, the pilot threw the jet into evasive maneuvers, but was unable to escape the enraged teenager. She pulled the trigger, sending the sidewinder missile chasing after the fighter, which promptly deployed flares. Unperturbed by the defensive countermeasure, Rei fired the second missile and reached back into the building to pull out replacement missiles, fixing them to the firing rails.

It proved to be unnecessary, however. The second missile blew the fighter from the sky, a brief fireball that quickly died, unwatched by the Evangelion, which rushed to where Unit-01 had fallen back earth.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Gendo looked up as Misato walked into his office, her pistol pointed directly at his face. Unfazed, he leaned back in his chair, pushing his glasses back up his nose, watching her as she quickly crossed the room, her face tight in an angry scowl, the pistol steady in her hands.

"Can I help you with something, Sub-Commander?" he asked, his voice dry and disinterested.

"What is going on here, Commander?" she spit out, her voice shaking with rage. "What's really going on?"

"I'm not entirely sure what you're getting at, Sub-Commander. You're the one standing in my office, pointing a pistol at me. Perhaps if you would care to elaborate?"

"What's going on at NERV?" she sneered, not in the mood to put up with whatever it was the Commander thought it was he was doing. "Your son's in a coma with internal injuries and a massive hemorrhage in his brain. Asuka is near catatonic and is having heart arrhythmia and has something causing cranial pressure in her skull that doesn't show up on x-rays or MRIs. Our last pilot, Rei, is in solitary confinement, and the JSSDF wants us to turn her over to them for trial! Yet here you sit, ignoring everything.

Unit-01 looks likes it's been to hell and back, missing almost all of its external armor and about half of its skin. It'll cost a fortune to repair- which is another thing! NERV should be bankrupt, several times over, but somehow we manage to get along – even after about half the UN pulled its funding! Yet here you sit, ignoring everything.

The MARDUK Institute is a sham, as was the timing of your son's appointment as a pilot. Technical documents and administrative reports don't match up, each painting widely different pictures. Rei's history is a massive blank page. What is Purgatory, Commander? What is the room of orbs?"

Misato paused, taking in a deep breath, her eyes never moving from the Commander, who remained where he sat, coolly regarding her.

"The last time that I saw wings of fire was the Day of Second Impact. What is Unit-01's connection with ADAM? What are you doing? What is the Scenario really about?"

Gendo nodded with a sigh. "So you want answers, I take it, for the questions that you've raised." He nodded again. "Sit down, Sub-Commander, and put away your pistol. You've apparently been doing some snooping on your own, and while I cannot shed any light on some subjects, you do deserve to know what is going on." When she made no move to sit, he took off his glasses, carefully folding them and setting them on his desk. Standing, he peeled off his gloves, causing Misato to gasp. "Sit down, Sub-Commander." He repeated, taking off his dark jacket, folding it and setting it down on her chair before removing his red turtleneck. Misato shrieked, pistol dropping from her hands as she recoiled in horror.

The Commander was a powerfully built man, and despite being in his late forties there wasn't a shred of fat on him, but that wasn't what caused the Sub-Commander to fall into the chair, eyes wide in shock. The skin of his right hand was pink and new, a pair of eyes blinking at her, one in his palm and the second on the backside of his hand. They were a bright blue, with a splash of green around the irises. Thick ropes of unnatural tendon and muscle trailed up his arm, moving back and forth underneath his skin. One tendril brushed up around the base of his neck, caressing his esophagus.

"Oh god…" she whispered, unable to tear her eyes from him, his face still locked in that seemingly impenetrable disinterested mask, "what have you done?"

"I have won, Sub-Commander." He said, a pleased smile breaking across his face. "I have won, and if you are patient and do not interrupt, I will tell you exactly how I did it."

Authors Notes:

This next set of months is going to be busy, so there may not be a new chapter until sometime in September.

In order to clear up any confusion, here is a handy-dandy timeline of certain events.

~~~Shinji and Unit-01 arrive to the nonexistent universe via Dirac Sea.

~14 Billion Human Earth-Years Ago: Shinji has had enough of the Angel's shit, becomes the Berserker. Causes the Big Bang, and begins his search throughout the Cosmos for his home.

~10 Billion HE-Years Ago: The First Ancestral Race achieves spaceflight. They also accidentally contact the Outer Gods and Great Old Ones when their first FTL drive (developed 250 HE-Years after first spaceflight) drops them into another dimension for about 3 seconds, unlocking the way for them to come into our universe. The first of the Great Wars is begun.

~9 Billion HE-Years Ago: The FAR, having sealed away the Outsiders, are dying. They create the Guardians and their Seeds to repopulate the universe.

~5 Billion HE-Years Ago: Lilith is born.

~5.8 Billion HE-Years Ago: The Guardians rebel against their masters. The rebellion is put down, but the FAR are now extinct.

~4.5 Billion HE-Years Ago: The Solar System is formed.

~3 Billion HE-Years Ago: Lilith arrives on Earth, begins cultivating life. This is her eighth planet. Unit-01 locates the Milky Way.

~65.5 Million HE-Years Ago: Unit-01 smashes through a planet that orbited between Mars and Jupiter. It's remains became the asteroid ring. Unit-01 arrives on Earth, causes the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction (First Impact) and battles Lilith. The other Angels are created to kill him. He and Lilith fight to a standstill- he impaled with the Lance, she too exhausted and wounded to finish the job. She returns to her Seed to recover. The Angels that remain slip off into the corners of reality to recover. Unit-01's AT-Field causes them to sleep as he does.

September 13, 2000: Unit-01 is awakened, and causes Second Impact. Shinji recognizes a young Misato and freaks out. Unit-01 escapes through the Dirac to the Present.

Yesterday: Unit-01 is sent back in time and space by the Dirac Sea that is Lelial's body.

Today: Unit-01 returns from Second Impact.

In Review:

Unit-01 is ADAM. _Nobody but Lilith knows this_, and Lilith only found out about it when Shinji entered the Chamber of Guf. She has no idea what happened, but knows that this whole thing is a massive Möbius-Strip temporal disaster.

The Angels (apart from Tabris) are born of Lilith. Only she knows this.

Rei was created from Lilith by Gendo and Kozo.

Tabris was created from samples taken from ADAM (Unit-01) by SEELE using Gendo's methods when he created Rei, only they used more ADAM material than Gendo used Lilith material.

The other Evangelions were grown from samples of ADAM (Unit-01).

The ADAM embryo implanted into Gendo was grown from ADAM (Unit-01).

Also: I'm not trying to make Gendo (or anyone) come off as being perfect, and I'm sorry if it seems that way. Everyone has something wrong, and is wrong about something, and it all could be disastrous if certain things came to light. Gendo is completely incorrect (along with SEELE) about what has been happening and what will happen. He has no idea that he is partially responsible for the entire mess in the first place, and he has no idea that Rei is as off the rails as she is. He is an expert manipulator and a genius, but his downfall is in what he does not know that he does not know. Rei is more or less crazy, and her own attempts at scenario building are threatening to overthrow Gendo's (although she does not know this). Her fanatical devotion to the Commander also puts her relationship with Shinji at risk. Asuka is trying to define herself. She is plagued by uncertainty and her environment, isolated and alone. She is trying to figure out what she will be, how to make her mark. At first, she was going to save the world. But now it looks like the others, mainly Shinji, are going to have a major part in that. So instead, she will define herself through her scientific work. However, everything that she thought that she knew is a lie. In desperation and ambition, she took up Lilith's offer of answers, but is unable to puzzle out the riddle. Unfortunately, this riddle also comes with a physical price, as an immortal god being's awareness and memories are too much for a human mind to handle.


	33. Chapter 33

_I, as usual, do not own Evangelion._

_I, as usual, would like to thank Judicar Deimos for proof reading and his insights._

_Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier means that time is proceding forwards._

_Vier, Drei, Zwei, Eins signifies a flashback_.

Gendo pulled his turtleneck back on as Misato watched from her chair, her expression a mix of horror and interest. Tucking the shirt back into his slacks, he sat down, forgoing the uniform jacket and gloves.

"I was born the bastard child of an American soldier and a Japanese whore," he began, hands folded in front of his face, eyes trained on his newest Sub-Commander. "I grew up in the streets, whoreson and half-breed, never knowing the face or name of my father. My earliest education was not in any school, but on those streets I learned to fight, and even more importantly, to win. I also learned that one person cannot challenge the system from the outside. I learned this lesson the hard way, Sub-Commander. My time on the streets came to an end, and I was given a choice."

"I was told that I could die, or I could leave. I had run afoul of both the law and the local Yakuza." Gendo smiled into his hands as he thought back to his uncouth youth. "I was never very good at showing respect to people who thought themselves my superiors. If I stayed on the streets, I would have been hunted down and killed. If I allowed myself to be arrested, I would have been killed on the inside. My only real option was to leave, and so I did. I joined the Merchant Marines, lying about my age and my background. I was always big for my age, something that I must have inherited from my father along with my blue eyes. Life at sea was hard, but no more so than life as a street thug. I made good money, and having nothing else to spend it on, I bought books. Books at each stop, all of them going to the ship's library when I was done. I learned more in those years on the ships than I had in my entire life, and I soon discovered that I wanted to learn more.

Eventually, there was no choice for me but to go to school to gain what I desired. The next time we returned home to Japan, I jumped ship. The first thing that I needed to do was obtain a diploma equivalent for high school, which proved to be easy enough. Competing for entrance to the university and the scholarships to pay for it was more difficult."

Gendo paused in his story, watching the woman, who was sitting perfectly still, transfixed. Nobody had ever heard the man say so much at once in a long time, she thought to herself. That he was talking about his past was even more shocking, but it put Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki's comments about him in context. His humble beginnings certainly were at odds with the amount of power that he now commanded.

"I overcame those obstacles as I would eventually overcome all others. After the demands of life at sea and the streets, school life was ridiculously easy. All that was expected of us was to do our assigned work and turn it in on time. Essentially, I was being rewarded for reading books on mathematics and science. I came to learn that not everyone saw it the same way, people who had never worked for themselves, people who never wanted for anything in their lives.

I don't begrudge them their opportunities or the privileged situations they were born into," he said as he leaned back in his chair. "A man cannot control the circumstances of his birth, or we would all be born princes. What does cause rancor is that they squander and waste their opportunities, that they do not see that we are all equal, be it in function and in death, and that they believe those of more unfortunate birth are below them. A poor man can think and reason just as well as a rich one, and the richest of princes will die just as surely as the poorest of paupers, but they believe themselves to be a special breed, superior to the peasantry. They believe that we are different from them, that we cannot even begin to grasp the ideas that they have, the thoughts that they think. They refuse to accept that the blood that flows through our veins is of the same source, that we all are blessed with uniqueness. That is one source of my discontent with those who would rule mankind as KADMON, the gestalt cosmic over-soul."

Gendo smiled, leaning back in his chair, his eyes shut. "I had a hard time learning to keep my mouth shut and my thoughts to myself. Fighting was something that I had grown up with, and physical altercations were second nature to me. There was none in that school who could hope to best me, but I was still beaten. Not all power is physical, you know. Political capital is just as strong as the mightiest of muscles. I was placed on academic probation and almost expelled from the university several times. It is only because of a few people, some of them students, some of them professors, that I remained.

Yui Ikari was a brilliant and beautiful woman in several of my classes. We had a few mutual friends, and were part of a regular group that studied together and drank together. She asked her father to pull some strings to keep me in school."

Gendo sighed regretfully, closing his eyes. "She never lorded it over me, never held it over my head. She had done it out of genuine interest and friendship. That was the first time that SEELE heard about me; although it would be some time still before I met her father, before he granted his daughter's wish he looked into my past and my present.

She might not have lorded it over me, but he was making plans to use me in the future. A hard working, intelligent young man, who owed his education to him? Too good a deal to pass up. But even then he and the rest of SEELE underestimated me. I might have been an argumentative, abrasive, and arrogant student, but I was also brilliant, audacious and in possession of an indomitable will. The very things that endeared me to that group also were what would set me against them in the future."

"So your wife was involved with SEELE since the beginning. The family business, so to speak." Misato said, having found her voice again after the initial shock. "But what does this have to do with anything other than you deciding to fight SEELE?"

"All in good time, Sub-Commander. All in good time." Gendo shook his head slowly as he watched the younger woman. "Our perceptions shape our realities. How we think is just as important as what it is that we think. If you are to understand someone, to truly know their thoughts and motives, you must know as much about them as possible.

But it is impossible to completely know other people, no matter how much you might know about them. As we grow, our realities and world views are molded by our experiences and perceptions. Our memories of events are in constant flux, recreated each time we think of them, colored more by our current attitudes than by the actual event the memory is of. To completely know someone requires more than knowing their history and opinions, you must know how they think. A careful student of humanity can build models and predict how people might react to certain things, but in the end, it will still be an imperfect model. We are all self contained universes, alone and inviolate, but we can reach out to others, and expand our worlds, expand ourselves, through our relationships with them. That is the truth of this universe; that we are alone. It is not a sad truth, or a reason to be bitter and hateful. It is simply just the bare truth. It is not to be lamented, but rather celebrated; because we are alone we are unique. The eventual aim of SEELE is to join all of humanity into the cosmic gestalt KADMON, where each of us is layered into one another, merging and mixing us into a single, omnipotent and omnipresent soul, over which they will be the ruling consciousness. They will place themselves in the position of _keter_, of the crown, of ruling, during the ceremony that drives Third Impact. Their philosophy is flawed because they do not understand the truth. They seek to end, not celebrate, our loneliness. To this end, they wish to harness the war between ADAM and Lilith, seeking to usurp the power of the ancient gods."

Gendo paused momentarily before speaking again, his tone sharp and cold. "I will not, I cannot allow this to happen. We are the children of Lilith as the Angels are the children of ADAM, and their paths are not our path. She made us in this way for a reason, and gifted to us the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Do not mistake the power of the Angels; we are the ultimate in this universe, for we have now created a force more than the match for those things. They cannot create. Their only purpose is to destroy. For all that they bleed and scream they are not alive. They do not live. What will they do after they destroy Lilith? Their father is dead and gone, passed from this world in the Second Impact. An empty and hollow existence awaits them; and that is what SEELE would do to us all.

The ultimate form of slavery; and they will not even do anything with the power that it will afford them. Their arrogance is disgusting in the extreme, and for this I will do everything in my power to stop them. They have no right to try to control the divine; they do not even understand what makes us so.

When I learned what was going on, I didn't believe it at first. In fact, I could not believe it. How could such a thing be true? But for all the nonsense that surrounds the story of the Illuminati, they exist and have driven the world's history to this one point, this one goal. The promise of immortality, of power unimaginable, of godhood. The more that I learned, the more I researched, the more I knew that I could not deny the truth. This was a plan centuries in the making, and there seemed to be nothing that could stop it.

SEELE is far to entrenched to be stopped merely through assassination, Sub-Commander. In fact, the terrible truth is that Third Impact cannot be stopped. It is inevitable. You have thought that my planned treason was to stop Impact before their noses, to halt their machinations with my own."

Misato watched him as he watched her, the man's eyes cold and hard over the hands that hid his face. He lowered them slightly so that while they still were held before him, they did not mask him. It made little difference, for all the emotion his stony face held he might as well not have bothered with revealing his face.

"That is, of course, a lie."

Misato stared at him in silence, swallowing slightly before speaking. "What do you plan on doing?" she whispered, gripping the arms of her chair tightly, her knuckles going white.

"I will initiate Third Impact ahead of them, take control of Instrumentality, and change everything." Gendo smiled a tight, savage grin, his eyes glittering with dark amusement. "You asked me what Purgatory was; the room of orbs. They are Evangelion cores, each one waiting for a pilot. You know that the Evangelions must synchronize with their pilots, that the pilots must in essence become the Evangelions to give motive to them. The higher the synchronization, the more control the pilot has, the stronger the AT Field they can generate. It's all explained with quantum physics, neuroscience and psychology, documented with a thousand nigh incomprehensible proofs, that all remain highly proprietary and hidden in numerous patents.

It's also all another lie. You might know that my wife died in a failed contact experiment, the first of our synchronization attempts. The truth is that her contact experiment was a success. She was consumed into the core of the Evangelion. She resides now in one of those red orbs, as does half the soul of Kyoko Soryu, as does over a million different women, all of them mothers."

"What?"

"The power of the Evangelions comes from the merging of souls, from attaining on a small scale what is achieved through Instrumentality. However, on the small scale it works best if there is a strong emotional bond between the two souls, depending on our individuality instead of brute force to attain this microcosm of Instrumentality. You see, it is because we are unique individuals that we can form these bonds with others. Simply put, two friends are stronger together than one person on their own. I have taken friendship and turned it into a weapon, although we have found out that the bond which drives synchronization the best is that of maternal love. To this end, SEELE orchestrated the absorption of the souls of a million mothers into the cores, disguised as a new medical procedure to safeguard their health. Across the entirety of this poor, broken world, shattered by Impact and war, they used the guise of the United Nations Maternity Protection Act to take the system developed by GEHIRN to take the souls of these women, in order to afford themselves a plentiful pool of pilots in the future.

The original plan was to keep the selection pool limited. We knew even then that the costs of the Evangelions would be astronomical, that we would only need a few pilots simply because there were limits to how many Evangelions we could actually make. Thus, the damage was going to be contained to a small group of volunteers, but SEELE wanted insurance against possible treason, against pilot death or injury."

Gendo glowered at Misato, his brow furrowed in anger, his eyes like glaciers. The eyes on his hand also glared, a faint reddish glow emanating from them. Misato's grip on her chair's arms tightened even more, her hands white.

"So they took the mothers of an entire generation. Took them, and then entrusted them to me for safekeeping. They saw it as a yoke to keep me chained to them, after they realized part of my intent."

"There's over a million cores in there…" Misato whispered, her voice sick.

"Did you ever wonder why it seemed that so many of the children in Shinji's class had no mothers? Did it ever strike you as strange, that bizarre epidemic that spread itself like wildfire amongst women between twenty three and thirty all across the world? That they all had families, that they all had children?"

"But Asuka's mother… she went insane and killed herself. And you said that your wife was entirely taken into the core."

"Yes. My wife was taken, body and soul into the Evangelion core. This was her intent – this was how she would help control Third Impact. She would be the key by which the process was controlled, and inside the Evangelion she could remain separate and apart from KADMON."

"But why?"

"She and Unit-01 would be an eternal monument to the existence of man. Like the pyramids or acropolis, or a gravestone." Gendo sighed deeply, a resigned wretchedness in his voice. "She always saw man as a temporary thing. You know that on the geological timeline, we've only been around for about five minutes. We are a bright flash of light in the dark, and she believed that we would pass from the cosmos. All our history, all of our monuments and creations would be reduced to nothing, eventually erased from existence when our sun dies. She saw Unit-01 as a way to ensure that something of man would exist forever. So the contact experiment took her in her entirety. Kyoko wasn't in on the plan, though. She thought that something had gone wrong. The original goal – as she knew it – was that we were trying to create a new consciousness based off one of our one, much like the GLaDOS systems. She thought that she had fixed it, that she had found and corrected the error."

"And she was wrong." Misato said, her eyes wet with tears, a glistening sheen of moisture laid over them, threatening to break free and pour down her face. "What happened?"

"Her soul was broken, and half was taken into the core of Unit-02. She did not go insane as everyone else thought. She just was literally not all there. A broken mind and soul was left behind in her body, and she lingered in this world that way, not even a ghost of who she was, until she killed herself.

SEELE took the systems that we had created, and finished the work that we started. They did not want it to be too obvious that they were responsible for the madness and deaths that would follow the new medical checkups, after all. Instead, the women selected for 'recruitment' would linger and waste away, dying by inches, their souls sealed away in those damnable cores."

"Leaving their children available as pilots if the need ever came up."

"Indeed. And no one was ever the wiser for it; no one even suspected a thing. It was just another tragedy of this poor, broken world. The UN had already warned the people about plagues and new illnesses, after all, wasn't that the point of the new medical checkups, the new medicines being distributed? Some were just luckier than others."

"So all of the pilot's mothers are in the Evangelions?" Misato said, trying to change the subject before she threw up. She could already taste the bile in the back of her throat. "Was Rei's mother a team member in the original development crew, too?"

"No, Rei's mother is down in the Chamber of Guf." Gendo replied, picking up a phone and sending out a text message. "I am sending for some refreshments, Sub-Commander. You look like you could use a drink."

"The Chamber of Guf?" Misato asked, ignoring his comment. "But… Her mother is Lilith?"

"Yes. Rei, you see, is not a normal human. She is… special. She is another part of the equation, another piece of the puzzle in the solution of how to control Third Impact. She is a Human/Angel clone, a hybrid made to help bridge the gap between us and our mother, Lilith."

"She's a… a… she's a clone?"

"Yes. Down below us, there is a floor that is reachable only through one elevator, a sealed and restricted elevator. On this floor is a collection of rooms, and these rooms house the laboratory where Kozo Fuyutuski and I created her, the imaging machine by which we can make copies and back up her mind and soul, the aquarium that holds her spare clones, and the rooms in which she lived the first years of her life."

Misato found herself capable of only making a few strangled sounds, unable to form coherent words. She wasn't sure what to think or feel at the moment, not sure how to take the Commander's matter of fact tone, or the content of his message. Part of her mind screamed at her that none of this could be true, and another part screamed at her to kill the madman that sat in front of her.

"It took us some time, and we had many setbacks, but we eventually succeeded. There was nothing we could do about her pigmentation issues, but we were happy with having an otherwise healthy young girl. I suppose that it is to be expected, as she is half Angel." He watched the younger woman squirm in her seat, her face as white as a sheet. "It's making sense now, isn't it?" He asked, his voice soft, almost an amused whisper. "Her background and past, a mystery sealed in secrecy. Her unusual health issues, that precluded her from interacting with the general populace until a few years ago. Her being my ward when I sent my own son away. I created her, Sub-Commander, just as surely as I created NERV. I created her and I raised her. Her entire existence has been guided by me."

"But…" Misato trailed off as soon as she spoke, aghast at the entirety of the man's statement.

"You are thinking of her social ineptness, of how sheltered she is. Think of her as a captive bird, Sub-Commander. I have clipped her wings so that she might not fly. I have molded her mind and temperament as much as I molded her body. My signature is written in her thoughts just as my fingerprints are on her organs."

"You're a monster! You're sick!" Misato screamed at him, her eyes wild, spittle flying from her mouth as she convulsed suddenly, vomiting on the floor before his desk. She heaved again, emptying out the contents of her stomach.

"It's all necessary, Sub-Commander." Gendo replied, seemingly unperturbed by her reaction. "It needed to be done, if I am to succeed and stop SEELE. But to answer your original question, it is Rei who sits in Unit-00. The first Rei, if you will. Unit-00 was only ever supposed to be a test bed for armor and control systems, and was never intended to have a pilot. Rei's part in Impact is outside an Evangelion, not in one. However, the Senior Doctor Akagi changed things."

Gendo looked up as the door unlocked and opened to admit Kozo, who was pushing a cart laden with food and drink. "Ah, Kozo. I was just telling Sub-Commander Katsuragi about Rei."

"All of it?" the older man asked, hesitantly, his tired eyes moving between the woman and the man, resting briefly on the pool of vomit in front of the man's desk. "Is that wise?"

"She asked for the truth, Kozo. She's done some snooping, and wants to know what is really going on."

"And you're telling her." Kozo said with a sigh. "Did you warn her that she might not want the burdens that knowing the truth will bring?"

"She was rather adamant about it. She insisted on the truth, and I'm obliging her. I was just about to tell her about how Rei I ended up in Unit-00." He turned his attention back to the distressed woman. "Naoko, for whatever reason, killed Rei. She didn't know that the girl was clone; she thought that she was just a prospective pilot, much as Asuka was over in Germany. She strangled Rei, and then stuffed her into the Evangelion and conducted a contact experiment. We're not sure why she killed Rei, but she tried to run a salvage experiment on her. You see, it's theoretically possible for us to take out what was once put it the Evangelions. To bring back those souls, for them to form new, whole bodies from LCL.

It's never been successful though. After the failed attempt at salvaging Rei, she threw herself off the observation deck in Central Dogma."

Gendo shook his head as Kozo handed Misato a glass of water. "We decanted a new clone, and brought in Ritsuko."

"She knows?" Misato asked, spilling ice water over herself but ignoring it in her outrage. "SHE KNOWS?"

"Yes. I wasn't about to have a repeat of whatever had just gone down. She was going to have to step into her mother's shoes, and help Kozo and myself with spearheading the development of the Evangelions. We knew that we had some time left, but it was a race against the calendar. So yes, she knows everything that I do, as soon will you." He paused, frowning slightly."Don't blame her for this. Her deception was a matter of life and death. As you will find out shortly, it will not matter if you take this story to anyone. Enough inertia has built up to the point where we cannot be stopped. You know the value and weight of secrets, and you are aware of what we are fighting against."

Kozo sighed, carefully lowering himself into a chair. "It is monstrous, yes, the things that we must do to save this world. But we must. To stand by and let it happen without objection or resistance is even more monstrous."

"This is not a perfect world, Sub-Commander. I know this more than most. You know this more than most. But it is our world, and for the time being it is the only one we have. Any place can be Heaven, if we're willing to work for it. My wife used to think that, or at least she used to say that she did. She said it a lot after our son was born, and I thought that I would be able to use him to enlist her help." Gendo looked sorrowful, suddenly looking much older than he was. "Instead, she chose to use him in the murder of the world."

Vier, Drei, Zwei, Eins!

Husband and wife watched the technicians working on the final preparations for the contact experiment, busy completing the last checks on the grotesque puppet of meat and metal. The grinning skull was covered with as many cables and wires as it was muscle, the bare sections awaiting metal armor implants that would be attached after the experiment.

"It's not too late to back out, Yui." Gendo said, watching his wife's reflection in the glass. "We can change the plan."

"Oh honey," Yui said with a soft laugh, "it's far too late. Besides, what you want to do is dangerous. Promise me that you won't try anything rash after I'm gone." She reached out and rubbed his arm, already wearing the prototype neural interface suit, all hard rubber and silicone. Boxy metal sections housed circuitry and amplifiers sat at regular intervals across her body, making her outline look less an attractive woman and more a robot. "Our time here was short, and it's quickly running out. This is all for the best, trust me. You're still new to the whole idea. We all had the same thoughts when we were first brought in."

"At least leave our son out of it." Gendo pleaded, turning to Yui and taking her hands in his, caressing her fingers through the black silicone. "He doesn't need to see this. No one should have to watch their mother die, especially like this."

"It will be good for him, dear. I know that it seems a little harsh, but it will make everything easier in the long run. We are building a better future here. We are building eternity. But if we do not know about the darkness of our past, the brightness of our future is meaningless."

Gendo opened his mouth to argue, but stopped himself as the elevator opened, and their son came running out, leaving Doctor Akagi in his wake. The boy was grinning, and plowed into his mother, hugging her. Naoko had a small grin on her face, obviously having enjoyed playing babysitter to the boy.

"Are you ready to watch history in the making, Shinji?" Yui asked her son, smiling benevolently down at him. "Are you ready to see the future?"

The exuberant boy grinned and nodded, giggling at the texture of the suit his mother wore. Gendo forced himself to smile, although a ball of ice was slowly growing in the pit of his stomach.

"Well, go ahead and watch the window, watch the Evangelion." She carefully extracted herself from the boy who rushed to the window, eagerly watching the nightmarish construction below. Yui leaned in and kissed her husband for the last time, her dark eyes locking onto his. "Don't try anything rash," she whispered. "It'll all work out in the end."

Swallowing, Gendo could only nod, his words catching in his throat. He kept his eyes on her until the elevator doors closed, only then turning to join Naoko and his son at the window, his face a frozen mask.

Shinji waved back to the helmeted form of his mother as she walked towards the waiting plug. She mimed blowing them a kiss before she slid into entryway, the gaping hole that reminded Gendo of an open tomb. The metal plate swung into place, and the entry plug spiraled down, locking clamps engaging with a muffled thud, still audible through the armored glass.

It was all over in five minutes, his wife gone into the gleaming red orb, leaving behind a husband and a son, having forsaken them to the hideous machinations of SEELE in the pursuit of eternal KADMON.

Later that night, long after Shinji had finally gone to sleep, exhausted with grief, Gendo sat in the darkness of his son's room, head in his hands, planning.

It would not be until the early hours of the next morning that he would leave his son's side, and it killed him to do so, but there was work to be done.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato stared at her commander, her lower lip trembling slightly. "So she sits in the core of Unit-01? She's what causes the berserker behavior of the Evangelion? She's keeping him safe during battle?"

"No." Gendo answered. "Her orb is not the core that sits in Unit-01. I do not, I cannot trust her. My plans run counter to hers, and while rash, I am winning. This would not be possible with her in control of Unit-01. She could simply not synchronize with Shinji; she could ignore the commands given by him or us. She remains loyal to her father and to SEELE. She is a wildcard that I could not allow to remain in play.

But it should be apparent to you that it is someone else that provides the soul of Unit-01, Sub-Commander. Think now, and see if you can puzzle this out. Why would Yui care about Rei, when she was taken by Gaghiel into the bay? Why would she expend such effort to see her safe again, when she abandoned her husband and son? No, it is not Yui who is responsible for my son's vicious and bloodthirsty behavior on the battlefield. It is not Yui who is the one who is responsible for his victories, for his triumphs."

"Who is it?" Misato asked, eyes flicking back and forth between Gendo and Fuyutuski. "Who is the soul of Unit-01?"

"My sins are great and varied, Sub-Commander. They are both large in nature and number, and I have sinned against the natural order as well as against man. I plan on becoming a god, Sub-Commander, and I have created new life. I have created such plans that pit man against man and have placed my son and his friends into a war against supernatural beings of unknowable powers and thoughts. There is much more to this tale that you have yet to hear, and while it may sicken you, the truth of who it is that sits in Unit-01 is my worst sin. Even worse than what I have done to my daughter, for all the social and mental conditioning, for all of the carefully calculated abuses that has left her completely, dogmatically loyal to me."

He paused as he watched her, his face a stony mask; not betraying anything of what he felt, his voice smooth and emotionless.

"You know that Yui went completely into the core. You know that Kyoko went only partially, and left behind an insane husk, a broken shell of what she once was. You know that SEELE took our work and continued it, making it so that the women selected for recruitment would waste away and die after a few years, leaving no trace of their work.

I took all of it and perfected it. You perhaps recall an earlier conversation, where I said that I had made the children into titans, into colossi. This is truer of Rei than Asuka, as a small fragment of my daughter sits in Unit-00. It is completely true of Shinji."

Gendo leaned forwards over his desk, his eyes dark pits that seemed to draw Misato in. "I split Shinji's soul in half, cleanly and evenly cut in two. All of his tameness, all of his psychological issues, these are not the result of abandonment and abuse. He is this way because half of his soul has resided in Unit-01 since before he was eight. This is the secret to his unnatural abilities with the Evangelion, Misato. He can do these things because he is not just 'becoming' the Evangelion. He already is the Evangelion. He is Unit-01. Unit-01 is him. When he synchronizes with Unit-01, he becomes complete. His soul is rejoined, and the berserkergang that comes upon him is the exultation of his soul. The power that he wields in that barely cognizant state is the power that lies within the unconquerable spirit of every man, woman and child. I have given him means to harness and use that power. In your earliest reports on him you noted that you were unsure if we would be able to retain his voluntary services as a pilot, but I tell you that he will never choose not to pilot the Evangelion. He desires completeness, he wishes to be whole. The only thing we ever worried about was getting him into the Entry Plug the first time."

Gendo leaned back in his chair, watching the woman try to absorb the information. Kozo reached over to gently pat her on the back, but she jerked away from him.

"That was why you brought out Rei that day! To goad him into the Entry Plug, to reel him in." She stared at Gendo before turning to glare at Kozo. "You helped, didn't you?" She asked, her tone accusatory and sharp. "You helped him create Rei. You had to have helped him with this."

"I helped him." Kozo confirmed. "I only had a small part in the splitting on Shinji's soul, but I did play a larger part in creating Rei."

"And Rei!" Misato said, whirling back to stare at Gendo. "You said that she was a clone, and you called her your daughter. Who is she a clone of? Your wife? She looks a little like Shinji. Family resemblance?" Misato coughed slightly before swallowing. It was obvious to the two men that she was trying not to throw up again.

"No, she's not a clone of my wife." Gendo said irritatedly, as if there was something that she was missing. "It's not like I had a surplus of genetic material from her to do this. Rei is in fact much younger than she appears. I didn't create her until several years after Shinji had been sent away for safekeeping and NERV was created. We didn't even know that we were going to need a Human/Angel clone to properly control Impact until then. In fact, Rei II is only about nine years old, from a purely temporal point of view. She's a clone of Shinji, mixed with material from Lilith."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Ritsuko glared at Gendo as she inserted the IV into Misato's arm, eyes moving back and forth between the unflappable asshole and her friend's vein. "And you're completely positive that there wasn't an easier way to deal with this?" she asked, ignoring the other Sub-Commander as he shook his head.

"She wanted to know the truth, Ritsuko." Gendo said, neither protesting nor explaining. He was simply stating a fact. "It is past time, I think, that she was told the truth anyways. She's already gotten most of the shocks out of the way now, and when she comes back around, it should be smooth sailing. Only some of the minor details about the path to Instrumentality and our plans for what lies past it remain to be told, and possibly some clarification on the larger pieces of the Scenario. You should be able to answer most of the questions that she might have. There are still parts of my true plan that we had not yet gotten to, but if she wants to hear about them from me rather than from you, send her back up. I'm going to go back work, as the custodial staff should be done cleaning the office by now."

He nodded to her, and then left, Kozo slipping out behind him into the hall, chuckling. Ritsuko glared at them until the door slid shut, and she looked back down at her friend with a sigh. After checking the IV drip, she went over to the counter and poured herself a cup of coffee. After settling into her chair, she returned to reading the latest reports concerning Asuka.

It was about five minutes before Misato stirred, coughing. She sat up straight in the chair, glaring at Ritsuko. "You!"

"Me indeed." Ritsuko answered, lowering the tablet. "How are you feeling?"

"Are all of you fucking insane?" Misato screamed. "How do you think I'm feeling?"

"I imagine that you are feeling stressed and physically ill. You're taking this rather badly, I think. I took it better, and I got the whole thing all at once, on top of having just lost my mother. You've been eased into things."

Misato stared at her friend, her mouth agape in anger and horror. "I'm taking this badly?" she screeched, falling back against the chair. "Rits, we're working for a megalomaniac that's cloned his son, cut his soul in half and shoved it into a five hundred ton war machine! He doesn't intend to stop Third Impact at all, but is instead planning on replacing SEELE with himself!"

Ritsuko sighed as she set her computer back down and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "You passed out before he could tell you what he was going to do with that power."

"Of course I passed out! I just found out that I've been playing matchmaker between a boy and his gender swapped Angel-mixed clone, on top of everything else!" A look of newly realized horror dawned on the raven haired woman's face as she pointed at the doctor. "That's why you were against them hooking up in the beginning! It had nothing to do with them being Evangelion pilots at all! It's because they'd be dancing the horizontal mambo to the tune of the incestuous flipper-baby band!"

"Well, not exactly." Ritsuko said with a sad half smile. "It's not technically incest. It's more a sort of masturbation, for all that incest in and of itself is a social phenomenon, but even then it doesn't really count because the genetic drift is more than enough for any potential offspring to be perfectly healthy. It's a little counter-intuitive, because Rei, apart from being Shinji's clone, isn't really human. She's more a half sister to humanity, thanks to the genetic contribution from Lilith. Homo Sapiens Angelus, if you will. Since she's closer to the ancestral matriarch than anyone else, any coupling would result in another hybrid, but that would, in theory, be fertile, unlike, say, a mule. Of course,"

"Ritsuko, please stop." Misato groaned, a hand clapped over her eyes. "If you're trying to make me feel better, it's not working."

"You knew what you were getting into when you agreed to become a Sub-Commander, Misato." The doctor said, utterly unsympathetic. "You knew that he was a world class bastard. You knew that we were doing terrible things here. You knew that even before then. What sort of organization makes use of child soldiers, especially in war machines that inflict harm, both physical and mental, on their pilots?"

"The kind of organization that is fighting against the impossible, that has no other choice, that stands alone between the world and destruction," Misato grudgingly replied after a short silence. It was a sort of unofficial motto of the men and women involved in the various parts of Project E, a sort of catechism that helped them sleep at night, or reconcile with them the harsh truth of what they were doing.

"What does he plan to do with Instrumentality?"

"He will, theoretically, have ultimate power. He will adjust the laws of causality, release the trapped souls, end Instrumentality, and exile himself into Unit-01 along with Yui Ikari. The souls of mankind will reincarnate, and be returned to the world. NERV will be in place to provide leadership and order across the planet, and Kozo will be in place to command NERV. We will be able to make new Evangelions, taking core samples from Unit-01, which will give us an army that will be able to handle anything. Using the AT Field, we will be able to reshape the world, to protect it, to help explore space and to help us colonize it. Anyone who wishes to protect mankind, to see it prosper and grow will be able to synchronize with an Evangelion core that was grown from a sample of Unit-01's."

"A literal army of guardian angels?"

"More or less." Ritsuko smiled, but her eyes looked sorrowful. "There's a few details missing here and there, but that's the general gist of the plan. It's all that he's worked to achieve, ever since Second Impact. He has always looked to the future, to ensuring that never again such a thing could happen. Third Impact cannot be stopped, Misato. It will happen, one way or another. SEELE's plans have been in place for far too long for it to be otherwise. We can only try to conduct damage control, to limit how bad things are going to be, and to make sure that it can't ever happen again."

"How much does Rei know?"

Ritsuko waved dismissively. "She knows most of it. She was created for this reason, to grant control to the Commander during Impact. She has lived her entire life waiting for the day of Third Impact, waiting for the day on which she may die and be released."

Misato's face was one of horrified shock. "She knows that she's going to die, and she's gone along with it this entire time?"

"Yes, she knows. For the longest time, it was all that she longed for, that she looked forward to. She'd often ask if this was the day on which she would die." Ritsuko shook her head. "It was the most depressing thing you could ever hear. A little girl of seven, in all reality only two years, asking you in that emotionless voice of hers every single day if this was the day she was going to be allowed to die?"

Misato swallowed, trying to imagine it, and finding that she could picture it. It was a terrifying image. "You said that she had done that. Did she only just recently stop asking?" There was, in her mind, only one reason why the girl that might have ceased asking such a question.

Ritsuko shook her head again. "No, she stopped asking a few years ago, right about when she burned down the building she was living in. Whatever happened, for whatever reason that she burned it down, she stopped asking. But she was still set on it, you could tell. She had nothing else to live for, you know. Gendo needed her to trust him unequivocally, to have her give him control, total and complete control, of not only her soul, but all the souls of mankind and the process of Instrumentality. She worships him. She has followed every singular command he gave her with her entire being. Then it came time for her to be introduced to Shinji, and the Commander told her that she should get to know him, to be close to him."

"And she did. But why? Why does she need to be close to him? What part of that plays into the Commander's plans?"

"Because she must know what it means to love another. As the key to Instrumentality, she needs to know what it means in order to make her choice. If she did not know how to love, if her existence was completely empty and devoid, why would it matter to her if it was the Commander's plan or SEELE's that came to fruition?"

"How will it happen? What's the thing that's inside the Commander's arm?" Misato leaned back in the chair, rubbing at her forehead.

"That was a nascent embryonic clone of ADAM. It is part of the equation to achieve Impact. ADAM's power will counter Lilith's, Rei will act as the intermediary and pass control of Instrumentality to the Commander instead of a new, joint consciousness being born inside of KADMON. Unit-01 will replace Lilith as the new source of future Evangelions, and the Lance of Longinus, the only weapon that could stop us, is safely locked away."

"So what happens to the kids? What happens to Rei, to Shinji, to Asuka? Will Kyoto return? What about Rei I?"

"Rei I isn't a separate entity, she was just the first of the cloned bodies to be used as host by Rei's soul. Only a small piece of her soul was taken into Unit-00, which is why she has such low synchronization scores. Kyoko only has part of her soul in Unit-02. She'll pass from this world, I guess, unless the rest of her soul was absorbed into Unit-02 after her physical body died. We're just not sure what will happen with her. Shinji, well, Shinji's part of the burnt offering." Ritsuko swallowed. "He's going to die during Instrumentality, Misato. Unit-01's the final part of the puzzle, you see. Without it, Instrumentality cannot happen. His death, and Rei's, gives mankind a future. There is no other way, but..."

"But what?"

"Gendo thinks that there is a chance, a very small chance, that they might live through it. I don't think that it'll happen though. Rei will choose to die, to be released from her bonds here, and Shinji will follow her. He won't choose another life of loneliness and despair. He will choose death."

Misato had nothing to say. She could only stare in horrified accusation at the other woman, who, in a complete inversion of how she normally was, had twin lines of tears running down her face.

"Don't look at me like that, Misato! Don't! I've helped raise Rei! Don't you think I wanted a family, once? Don't you think that they're as close to children as I'll ever have? They practically are my children!" Ritsuko snapped her mouth shut, and swallowed several times, wiping away her tears. Breathing hard through her nose, she stood up after regaining her composure. "Follow me," she said, motioning to Misato to get up. "I'll show you where we keep the spares."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kaji smiled as the door slid open, the troublesome lock finally giving way to his skilled ministrations. Tucking his tools back into his bag, he scooted into the room, pushing the black satchel to the side as he took stock of the room's contents.

Kaji Ryoji was by any reasonable definition a jaded individual, not much given to shock or surprise. He had long ago burned out the last bits of his innocence or naivety, leaving behind a cynical man who liked to collect secrets. Much like a priest in the confessional, he would often remark to his friends in the industry, he had seen it all, especially now after his time at NERV.

He was entirely unprepared to see a huge aquarium tank running the entire length of the room filled with LCL and naked clones of Rei Ayanami. A shiver running down his spine, he moved closer, slack-jawed with shock. There appeared to be hundreds of them, and that was just counting the ones he could see in the clouded depths of the viscous liquid. Even though the aquarium was lit from below by powerful lights, bathing the room in an amber glow, he could only see about a meter or so into the tank. The clones swam and floated about like fish, a disturbing emptiness in their eyes that was matched by even emptier smiles. Over the hum of machinery a faint, inane girlish giggling could be heard through the thick glass.

Clones they might be of the serious young woman, he thought to himself, but they could not be more different from her. She always had an icy coolness about herself, although she did have her sporadic flashes of warmth, sometimes disturbingly warm, but her eyes were not empty and devoid of thought. Neither did she smile so, for her expressions were faint and as carefully measured out as rice during a famine. She was a girl of subtle emotion, and he doubted that she even knew how to giggle.

Stepping up to the glass, he reached out and placed his hand against the clear barrier. The clone closest to him smiled dumbly and mimicked the movement; her delicate alabaster hand stained a pale orange inside the tank. Others swam closer, acting like a school of fish, but lacking any trace of curiosity on their faces. The identical swarm retained their slack-jawed smiles, acting more like a mirror to him than any sort of actual person.

What was this all about? What was Rei? This raised so many new questions that Kaji wasn't sure that he would have time to answer.

So engrossed in puzzling out the riddle presented by the tank of cloned girls, he almost didn't hear the door unlock and open behind him. He turned around slowly, casually, and leaned against the glass with a grin that slid off his face as he saw who had just entered the room.

"You... you're not supposed to be here. You're locked up in solitary!" he exclaimed, staring at Rei, who had paused just inside the room. She stared at him silently for a heartbeat before moving again, walking off to the side, to one of the counters and put down the box of parts she had been carrying.

"You are not supposed to be in here," she said, throwing the spy's words back at him. "This is my laboratory. I am allowed to be in here if I wish."

"But you're locked up! I just saw you before I came down here!" Kaji protested, watching the girl as she emptied the pockets of her labcoat, setting the juice box and half eaten sandwich on the counter next to the box.

"I am locked up inside a cell. I am also standing in front of you here, inside this room where you are not supposed to be. I am in almost all of the places that I should be. You are out of place." She watched him, her face betraying nothing, as unreadable as the face of an Evangelion. "Why are you here?"

"Well, I'm on an errand for the Commander. You see,-"

"That is a lie, Agent Ryoji." She interrupted him. "The Commander would not send you in here. This room is not used in any part of his Scenario. If you had business with the clones, you would be in the room on the other side of the tank."

Smiling weakly, he waved at the tank behind him. "Okay. Okay, so I'm here on my own. Nobody knows about this room, other than you and me. I came in here to find out what you were doing in a room that's secured against a top level security access code."

Now it was Rei's turn to look shocked, and while the look was fleeting, Kaji saw it. She had not expected to hear that she had been under observation, that much was clear. The only question was what he could do with this information, and how he could keep her off balance.

"You should not have come here," she said. "The Commander had warned you about going into places that you should not go. You should have listened to him."

"You're not going to tell Ikari that I was here." Kaji scoffed. "Then you would have to explain what you're doing out of confinement, and what you're doing in this room."

"You are correct, Agent Ryoji. I am not going to tell Commander Ikari that you were in here. I cannot, however, allow you to continue to work against his Scenario, and I cannot let you work against mine."

Kaji grinned at the girl. "You surely don't think that you can do anything to stop me, do you?" he asked as he leveled his pistol at her. "I think that I'm going to leave, and do some more investigating. Threats don't work against me, Rei."

She did not answer, but picked up a strange looking device that was vaguely gun shaped from the counter. "Your nine millimeter has a maximum of sixteen shots before you must reload. My infrared laser cutting torch is effectively limitless in ammunition against a soft skinned target."

"Rei, don't think for a second that I won't kill you." he warned her, eying the device in her hand. "You don't live very long in this job if you get hung up on dealing with threats to your life."

She did not answer, but brought the torch up and aimed at his chest. "You will sit down and allow yourself to be restrained until I am able to determine the best course of action. I will not tell you this again, as past data suggests that you have a habit of ignoring warnings."

"Last chance, Rei. Drop it."

Her finger closed around the trigger when the pistol barked as Kaji shot first. The round took her through the throat, and she collapsed against the counter, bouncing off of it, emitting a horrible gurgling sound as she drowned in her own blood as she tried to breathe through a ruined windpipe.

Kaji shook his head sadly as he walk up to her shuddering form, picking up the torch and putting it on the counter as he squatted down next to her.

"I told you, you stupid little girl." He sighed as she stared wordlessly up at him, pink froth bubbling out of the wound just above her sternal notch, where her neck met her shoulders. "Whatever you are, you're not bulletproof." He frowned as a grin spread across her face, her eyes empty. "Now that's just creepy," he muttered to himself as the girl started to giggle through her drowning gasps.

"I am not creepy, Agent Ryoji."

Kaji whirled around, the pistol coming up as he drew a bead on the source of the statement, his eyes going wide with shock as Rei stood behind him, naked and dripping. His eyes darted back to the dying girl next to him and then back up to the one that was very much alive. Fear spread across his face as he saw the tank behind her, seeing a hatch that he hadn't noticed before standing open. "What-"

"I am not bound to a single body, Agent Ryoji," she stated, cutting off his question before he had finished asking it. "Nor am I bound to a single body at a single time."

Behind her, two blank faced clones climbed out of the tank and stepped towards them, with more following behind. His finger curled around the trigger as he shot the speaking clone in the head, which crumpled to the floor amidst a spray of blood and brain matter. One of the other clones stood up straighter and stopped advancing. He turned and shot her as she opened her mouth to speak, dropping her, and then he shot the one next to her as he stood and ran to the door.

The door was locked, and refused to open. He spun around, eyes wild with fear. His pistol spoke twelve more times, and twelve more bodies hit the floor, twitching as they died, but there was far more than twelve clones at Rei's disposal.

Agent Ryoji, she noted, took much less subduing than her brother.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"How many are there?" Misato asked, her voice low and dead, as if she was incapable of being shocked any more. "What are they doing?"

"Right now? They're just swimming around. They're kind of like fish. Mindless, soulless fish that look like Rei. If you walk up to the tank, they'll swim over to you and mimic your actions. They are receptacles for souls, and they'll mirror your own if you're near enough to them. We have a few thousand of them."

"A few thousand? What was he planning on doing with Rei that he would need so many?"

"At first? I don't know." Ritsuko said with an indifferent shrug. "You know that he likes to be prepared for anything. You've seen the fail-safes, the emergency protocols, all of the drills. Half of what he does is think of how the Scenario could be threatened and devise countermeasures. But the plethora of available clones does offer us some other options besides the replacement of Rei should she die in battle or accident. These things are the core of the new autopilot that we've been working on."

"I thought that one of the issues with using the Evangelions was the temperamental synchronization process, which makes more sense when you know about how it actually works, by the way." Misato commented with a dark look at her friend. "How did you get an autopilot device to work?"

"I told you that they mimic souls, didn't I?" Ritsuko replied, somewhat irritated that her friend hadn't put it together. "We load a scan of the pilot's mental patterns and run it against the dummy plug insert," she explained with a wave at the tank, where two clones waved back, "and the clone mimics the soul of the pilot and then synchronizes with the Evangelion. There are still some issues we're working on, and it's still in beta mode for all intents and purposes, but it's a stopgap measure as it stands."

"How close do you think you are to completing it? We might not even need the pilots at all, except for brain scans." Misato paused before continuing, thinking for a moment. "Wait, how well does the autopilot reason? What would its fighting capabilities be?"

"It has no reasoning capabilities. With the autopilot engaged, we have to control the Evangelion from Central Dogma. It's really less an autopilot than a subsystem that lets the Evangelion be run remotely like a UAV drone."

"Well that's better than nothing, I suppose." Misato made a disgusted face. "So we still need the pilots."

"We still need them." Ritsuko confirmed. "C'mon, let's go. I don't like spending any more time down in here than I need to. They kind of creep me out."

"They creep you out? What about those of us who aren't mad scientists? Wait... You said that you practically raised Rei and that you thought of the kids as your kids. These are all just more Reis. What gives?"

Ritsuko felt an eye twitch. She sighed dejectedly. "What did the Commander say about us?"

"About us? What do you mean?" Misato stared at Ritsuko, uncertainty sliding into understanding and then something less than horror and more than revulsion. "Rits, ewww! He's so old! He's what, fifteen, eighteen years older than you?"

"I wanted a family, Misato! I wanted a family, and I had no time for anything else but work! He was here, and he's brilliant, and he's driven, and he's not bad looking." Ritsuko said, her eyes glistening with moisture.

"He's also planning on reuniting with his wife."

"I know!" Ritsuko snapped, her tone bitter as the first tears began to run out of the corners of her eyes. "He's going to leave, and my ersatz children will be dead, and all I'll have is the knowledge that I helped save the world."

"You have a weird way of playing house." Misato said as she hugged her friend, trying to cheer her up. "A husband who's married to the interred soul of a war machine, a son with half a soul in a war machine, and a daughter that's a hybrid clone of your son. Not to mention that the boy lives with me, and the girl lives with a friend from school."

Ritsuko sniggered into Misato's shoulder. "You're terrible at comforting people, you know that?"She sniffed. "It's not fair. Growing up, I never thought it would end up this way. Even in college, with you and Kaji-"

"I thought we had agreed to never talk about that." Misato said flatly, but she grinned at the doctor. "But yeah, I understand. You're all still crazy, but I suppose I understand."

Ritsuko pulled away, rubbing her face. "Let's go. There's still some more to tell you, mostly about what we know that SEELE is doing. They know that we plan betrayal, so they've taken some measures of their own."

"Great." Misato groaned. "More plots? Where do they end? Do the plots and counter plots ever end around this place?"

"No."

"How much of this is true, and how much of it is just another set of lies? Is there another deeper plot within a plot, another secret conspiracy just out of sight?"

Ritsuko laughed, a short, somewhat bitter titter of amusement. "There's to be no more secrets between us. If there is anything else that remains hidden, it's not anything that I know. If there is a deeper plot, then Gendo's playing it by himself."

"But, it's so horribly, complicatedly simple! How could any of it be true?"

"How else do you explain it, Misato? How else could you explain it? I'm just glad that I don't have to lie to you anymore."

"And what about Maya? Asuka? What about all the other technicians?"

"Why do you think that I take so much of the work with the Evangelions and Pilots on myself, handing out only the simplest of tasks to the others? It would be insane in a normal organization. It would be insane if what you are learning now wasn't the truth."

Both women waited in the elevator in silence. When the doors opened and Ritsuko stepped out, Misato stayed where she was, prompting the blond doctor to look back.

"Misato?"

"Are we friends, Ritsuko? I mean, really, are we friends?" Misato asked, looking at the woman she had known since college. "Are you really telling me everything, or is it just another lie?"

Stepping back into the elevator, Ritsuko carefully wrapped her arms around the Sub-Commander, drawing her into a hug. "It's the truth. No more secrets, no more lies. Just the plain, stark, terrifying truth."

"Okay."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka leaned on her IV caddy as she stared at the comatose form of the Third Child. He looked horrible, as if he had gone three or four rounds with a rhinoceros. She hadn't ever seen him look as bad, even after their horribly aborted battle with the leviathan, despite losing his leg. Whatever had happened to him and Unit-01 inside of the Angel, it had done a number on the pair of them.

He was out of the intensive care wing, which was a relief, but was still on enough life support machines that he might as well have been inside his Evangelion. Despite all the machines that were trying to keep him alive, he looked peaceful, possibly even serene in his wounded state, but she could not shake the sense of dread that she had as she watched him sleep in his coma. She felt uneasy in his presence, and in the presence of Unit-01, a deep-seated despair and fear that tugged at her mind and soul. Even with him comatose, there seemed to be an aura about him, as if he was not so much as sleeping as he was simply waiting to be switched on and unleashed.

How much of it was from Lilith and how much from her own observations of the boy she couldn't tell, but either way she was certain that there was more to it that just badly frayed nerves. He had been in more battles, and had done more damage, not only to the Angels but to the surrounding areas than Wondergirl and herself combined.

But even if he was waiting to be switched on, he was out of the fight for the time being. It was not good at all for him to be as prone to going into comas as he was, and some of the nurses had quietly voiced doubts about him coming out of this one.

The pilot corps was cut by a third with him gone. Distressing, but not the end of the world.

She hobbled over to a chair and flopped down, taking care to not dislodge the catheter tube in her arm. Still watching the boy as he slept, her thoughts went to another third of the pilot corps, several floors down in solitary confinement.

Rei was confined, not necessarily as punishment, but more for her own protection. The JSSDF wanted her. The government of Japan wanted her. The loss of two fighters and four pilots was not something that either was going to let pass without comment of action. Neither, however, was NERV going to just hand over one of their pilots. The political climate was very tense and charged though, and NERV Command had sequestered the girl away while they argued with the national government and military complex, claiming self defense on the part of the girl.

But until Commander Ikari could talk things over with the powers that were, Rei would remain incarcerated.

Two thirds of the pilot corps was out of the fight. This was dangerous, if not an outright disaster, seeing as Rei was fully capable of piloting.

Then, of course, there was herself. While she would of course throw herself back into the Entry Plug even if she was half dead, she had to admit that her chances in combat as she was were not good. The intracranial pressure had let up in the past two hours, but she was still a little wobbly, uneasy on her feet.

At less than a hundred percent, she could not even say that a third of the pilot corps remained ready to defend the world against the Angels.

It was a sobering thought, NERV being defenseless against the Angels, the Evangelions without pilots. Weapons without anyone to use them were useless. The puppets of meat and armor, as powerful and awesome as they were still needed someone to pull the strings. Without the pilots to give them purpose and life, the giants would remain in their cages in the event of an Angelic incursion, unable to do anything.

She hauled herself to her feet and left the boy's room, headed back to her own. Until the Commander managed to secure Rei's freedom and safety, she would be the only pilot on the active roster. It was important that she get back to her normal self as soon as possible.

She paused in the hall as she caught sight of Maya leaving her room. The older woman stopped as well, watching her for a moment before a small, hesitant smile appeared on her face. "I heard that you were back on your feet. How are you feeling?"

Asuka hesitated for a moment, before shaking her head. "Worried," she answered, but smiled back at the lieutenant. "Shinji's still out of it and Rei's locked up. I guess that Doctor Akagi's busy with Unit-01?"

"Yes and no. She disappeared sometime ago with Sub-Commander Katsuragi, but Unit-01's mostly on the road to recovery. The damage was extensive, and we decided that it was just easier to replace the armor and missing systems outright. It's getting the newest hardware, right down to the ancillary systems, and it's reacting well to the new implants. All in all, it will probably be ready before its pilot."

"What about the dummy plug systems? I saw that it was on the schedule for my Unit-02, but that was for extended testing. Are we including it in Unit-01's upgrades?"

"Yes, we're putting the autopilots in both Units."

"Better than nothing, I suppose. Two halfway good systems might make for one actually good system, right?" Asuka joked. "Has there been any news about what's going on with Rei?"

"I haven't heard anything about it either way. I guess that no news is good news, although I don't think that they would say anything if they were going to hand her over." Maya looked up at the ceiling as if she was looking to the Commander's office several floors above them, to where he no doubt was sitting now, shrouded in darkness, planning and plotting, maneuvering his political pieces to ensure that his aims were met. "I've got the MAGI scouring the nets for any scrap of information. The UN has condemned the act, but hasn't taken any official stance."

"Have you heard anything about how she's taking it? I mean, how is she holding up in solitary?"

"If it was anyone else I would be worried. She's isolated herself from most other people before in her life. I don't think that she'll care much about the isolation except that it's keeping her from Shinji's bedside."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato stared through the reinforced armored window into the cage that housed Unit-01, watching the swarm of workers as they went about the business of repairing the stricken titan. Dirty gray flesh stood out against the deep purple of the nutrient rich coolant. The last scraps of armor that had remained after it's reemergence from within the Dirac had been stripped from it in order to help prepare the Evangelion for the new armor and upgrades. The face of Unit-01 was the most human-like of the Evangelions, but itself was a grotesque, misshapen parody. While within the purple and green armor, the Evangelion was a terrifying construction, a weapon of immense power and a monument to the tenacity of mankind's struggle for survival. Without the armor, the defenses stripped away by conflict and violent bloody strife, the Evangelion was a nightmarish monster.

But the nightmarish monster that stood before her was not at all similar now to the nightmarish creature that had ripped the world asunder. Gone were the wings of pure fire, which Ritsuko said had been created by Shinji's AT Field. The eyes that sat underneath the heavy eyelids were a deep emerald green, the same color that ringed the mostly blue eyes of the ADAM sample that was living and growing within the Commander, not the supernovas that sat amidst a less brilliant field of living fire.

"We made the Evangelions in the image of ADAM, in the image of the physical god that we had found." Gendo said as he walked up beside her, his hands clasped behind him. "I always found it strange that He resembled us more than our mother, but I had more pressing matters to deal with than unraveling that little mystery. I do not know if you ever saw Him while He was encased within the Antarctic Ice, but Unit-01 is a close copy of how he looked. His armor was different, and His face was more human, having a nose and lips. While he slept in the ice, his eyes were the same green as Unit-01's."

"How do you explain Shinji's mimicking of ADAM's awakening? Has he ever heard about that day? About what happened?"

"He has not, at least not from my guidance, heard anything about the particulars of what ADAM looked like or the manner of his awakening from his slumber. Neither has he seen any of the truncated and fragmentary recordings that were recovered." Gendo paused, watching the activity before them unblinkingly. "I take it from your questions that you never shared what you witnessed with him."

"I didn't. I told them that I had been there, that I watched the breaking of the world. I never told them what it was like." She shuddered and turned her back on the window, leaning up against it, staring at the floor. "I almost died when he came back, when he broke free. I thought..." She trailed off and shook slightly, wrapping her arms around herself.

"You thought that He had returned; that He had come back from the other side."

Misato nodded miserably, choking back a sob.

"I do not know why he chose those aspects, why he shaped his AT Field thusly. I told you before that I did not have answers to all of your questions; that in some things I was in the dark just as much as you were." His voice betrayed nothing, no sign of what he thought of her breakdown. "In the berserker state he is only peripherally aware of his actions. I can only offer conjecture as to whatever reasoning he had for choosing them. If it had been another Evangelion, I would say it could have been psychic residue from their source material. Or perhaps Lilith also wraps herself in the raiment of flame and fire to do battle." He shrugged, and shoved his hands into his pockets. "I don't know. She is difficult to speak to, and often fickle. She has refused to speak on numerous occasions. The Lance, we know at least is hers. If He had one it was lost long ago. Our studies on the Lance from before show that it is a single piece of metal, either an alloy or an element that is completely unlike anything we have ever seen before. It is a two pronged spear, the twin blades twisting into a double helix down into the main shaft. The blades are impossibly sharp, going down to a monomolecular edge. There is no sign of wear and tear, no sign of weathering or aging. ADAM suffered in His fight with Lilith, and she suffered as well. The Lance shows no signs of damage for all that it was shoved straight through ADAM, or that it was anywhere near ground zero during Second Impact, or that it had spent over a decade lodged inside the ocean floor."

"Why is it called the Lance of Longinus?"

"It was named so in the scrolls from which we derived most of our information about the secret history of the world. I expect that the authors named it after the one weapon to pierce the side of the son of god. To them, there was only one weapon that could possibly harm such godlike creatures, these Angels, messengers of the most high." He shrugged, shaking his head. "The Lance belonged to Lilith. It was a tool as much as a weapon, I gather, with which she brought about life on this world. When she speaks, you see, it is not a simple message or conversation like what you and I share. She implants thoughts and memories, recalled sensations and feelings directly into your mind. But for all that she is our ultimate mother, her ways are different from ours. It is hard to puzzle out her meanings and the truth in those alien thoughts." He paused, and turned from the activity before them to look at her. "Did ADAM ever speak to you? Did you ever feel like there were thoughts and memories not your own running around inside your head?"

Misato shook her head. "Nothing at all like what you've said. What does she say about Him?"

"She has refused to speak of him, except that he is a Destroyer from Outside."

"What does she think of your plans? About her upcoming death, I mean."

"That is why we need Rei. Rei will take control over Instrumentality, usurping it from Lilith. Her plans, from what I gathered from SEELE, were to free herself and resume her duties of overseeing the world. While not necessarily a bad thing, it leaves the possibility of a Third Impact open. I cannot allow this."

They stood there in silence, watching the crews halting their activity, the men and women of the next shift coming on duty, quickly resuming the near twenty-four hour repairs of the Evangelions.

"What are we going to do about Rei?" Misato asked, still watching the crews as they inserted metal components into waiting flesh. "Are we going to give her to the government?"

"It is a race." Gendo answered cryptically. "We are very close to being ready to trigger impact on our terms. I am stalling the proceedings with the JSSDF, but if things are not favorable in a few weeks, some measures will need to be taken. I am in the process of setting things up."

Misato nodded slowly. "You didn't anticipate something like this?"

"No, I did not. I did plan for eventualities where the JSSDF comes against us, but in force and not like this. My agents within the Diet are working to soothe and settle the hurt feelings of the military, but it may not be enough as it is." While his face remained serious, his tone lightened fractionally. "I do not yet have plans for everything."

Mistato allowed herself a small smile. "Yet," she echoed. Sighing, she shook her head. "I still have a lot of questions, but they can wait, unless there is anything else that's a big deal that you think I should know about right now."

"I have another son."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei ignored the spy as he regained consciousness, the man's head jerking back violently from where it had lolled forwards. His eyes were wide and wild; searching everywhere he could see, struggling against his bonds.

"You will find that you have been restrained with three rolls of duct tape." Rei informed the spy, looking up at him from across the room. "You will remain in my custody until I can determine the best course in regards to your use."

His mouth was sealed with tape, but the look in his eyes conveyed the unspoken question.

"If you are to be freed, it will be on my terms, and as my agent. However, the question remains of how to secure your total loyalty, for I do not wish to allow you to have as long a leash as the Commander has seen fit to give you. As it stands, you and your lack of loyalty compose a major security risk to the Commander's Scenario and to my own." She went back to work, bending over the countertop and the circuit board she was soldering. Kaji resumed his struggles, trying to find any give in his restraints or the chair to which he was secured.

"If you are apprehensive as to the means by which I will kill you if I deem it necessary," Rei said without looking up from her project, "do not worry. It will be as painless as I can manage. With enough morphine in your system, you will fall asleep and never wake up." Setting the solder gun down, she carefully moved the stand that held the command board off to the side. Rei picked up a juice box and stuck the straw down into it, and began drinking as she watched the spy. He glared at her, but if she was bothered by it at all, he couldn't tell. Her normally impassive face was further masked by the pair of goggles she wore, the dark lenses obscuring her eyes. They were very similar to the pair worn by Shinji during the Halloween party, causing him to wonder where the boy had gotten them from. "I do not wish to cause you undue discomfort," she continued, "but I must protect the Commander's interests." She finished her juice, emptying the box with a final draw on the straw. Leaving the box on the counter, she stood up as she removed her goggles and dropped them into a pocket of her lab coat. "I must obtain more components for the modified control system. I will procure a number of saline packs in order to prevent you from dehydrating." She paused momentarily at the room's entrance, looking back over her shoulder. "The MAGI will alert me if you attempt to free yourself. Any attempt to escape is futile, Agent. My clones will be within arm's reach of you in moments. "

As soon as the door's lock reengaged with a solid sounding click, Kaji began to assess his situation. He had escaped from perilous situations before, and there wasn't any reason why he couldn't do so now. He was secured to a metal chair by a generous amount of heavy duty duct tape, each wrist and forearm fixed to the arms of the chair, and each leg likewise done to the front legs of the chair. His jacket had been removed, and more tape secured his chest to the back of the chair. He could not stand, and he could not move his arms or legs.

His only option seemed to be to move his arms back and forth in an effort to loosen up the tape, although he severely doubted his ability to loosen his bonds enough to be able to slide his hands back out of them before the girl came back. But the spy was nothing if not optimistic. Slowly, he began to work at his restraints.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

The souls of Unit-00 and Unit-02 sat watching Unit-01 as he slept, the train car a ruined mess of burnt benches and scorched carpeting. The twilight sun barely cut through the hazy smoke that filled the car, smoke which refused to dissipate.

**What do you think it means?**

_I don't know. He hasn't moved since the shutdown, and the MAGI say that the boy hasn't moved at all either. He's still classified as being in intensive care, but they moved him back into his regular hospital room. _

**The girl says that she is still locked up, although it means little to her. She's working on a modified control system for us right now, although she had to stop to deal with a spy.**

_A spy? _

**Yes. Apparently one of the Commander's little agents is actually a triple agent or something; Rei's not sure and she's not all that interested so long as he's secured and not causing trouble. She's got him safely tucked away in her lab. He's apparently working for SEELE as well as Father, although the Commander is aware of it. I don't know why she doesn't just kill him and dump him somewhere, but she says that there might be some use to be gotten out of him.**

_You know, we don't have to resort to killing everything as the first option. _Unit-02 remarked, giving off the impression that she was frowning at the cyclopean Evangelion. _Has she seen my daughter or the boy? I don't entirely trust the MAGI's reports on them._

**She hasn't been able to get close enough to check up on them. She's mostly moving around on the supply warehouse levels, and she's avoiding everyone she can. She wants to finish up the modified control system and get it installed along with the dummy plug. She says that it will allow us to run everything in a sort of triple synchronization, allowing us better control over the AT Field. **

_Interesting. I take it that she has plans for this improved control?_

**She says that she should be able to pull off the fire wings. I don't see how useful that is, as we still need to be attached with a umbilical cable, but she wants to give it a try at least.**

_The fire shield would be more useful, I think. Can you ask her to get one installed into me? _

Before Unit-00 could reply, the train shook violently, sending them sprawling on the ground. Unit-01 didn't stir from his unnatural slumber even as he bounced off the bench of seats onto the floor. Both Evangelions stared at each other as the tremors died down.

**What was that?**

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"So SEELE cloned you like you did Shinji." Misato said, shaking her head as she flipped through the dossier on Kaworu Nagisa, staring at the pictures of the boy. "He looks nothing like you."

"A side effect of having the Angelic material blended with the human donor material is being able to sculpt the features of the new body. I chose to retain some of Shinji's features in Rei's face purely due to missing my son. SEELE sculpted Nagisa to meet their own aesthetic values."

"He certainly is a pretty boy." Misato remarked. "He's got the same skin as Rei, but his eyes and hair are different. You said that you weren't able to resolve the pigmentation issues in Rei, but it looks like they were able to take care of it with him." She flipped back to the first pages, looking at the medical profile. "What's he like?"

"We've never met. He's supposed to be a surprise for me, a final trump card. SEELE will only send him here once they are ready to initiate Impact – they do not trust me not to take control to assume godhead by myself. But the boy is a child prodigy. He excels in all academic fields, and plays numerous instruments at the maestro level. He is also unsettling to be around, enough to the point where several of the attending staff has committed suicide, leaving behind cryptic, but worrisome notes. Kozo believes that he has some level of psychic abilities, granted by the large amount of Angelic material in his genome. His Marduk scores show that he will be an excellent Evangelion pilot and Ritsuko says that he'll be able to force synchronization with any Evangelion."

"Is that because they used ADAM instead of Lilith for the Angelic material?"

Gendo shrugged noncommittally. "It's a possibly. It could also be because the amount of Angelic heritage he has. Rei is a half and half, but the information my agents were able to retrieve suggests that Nagisa's genetic breakdown is closer to eighty percent Angel, and only twenty percent human."

"So what have the old men had him doing all this time? Just hanging around playing music? Does he have an Evangelion on standby over in Germany?"

"Not that I'm aware of, no. He's accompanied Keel on most of his travels, and otherwise remains at Keel's complex, but he's dropped off the grid recently. My agents haven't been able to find out where he is or what he's up to."

"Could it mean trouble for us? If he's a spare key to the end of the world, I'd like for us to know where he is before someone breaks into the house, if you know what I mean."

"Certainly, and I agree completely, although his disappearance act seems to be rather good. Most of SEELE seems to be unaware of his current location. The wing of rooms that he normally resides in has been empty save for cleaning staff."

"Do we think he poses any special threat opposed to the obvious due to being made from ADAM?" Misato asked, chewing on her bottom lip as she studied the smiling boy's picture. "You said that Rei hasn't manifested any noticeable abilities from Lilith, and I certainly haven't seen anything like psychic… stuff… around her. If this boy is psychic, shouldn't we be worrying about other Angelic abilities?"

"My resources around the boy are limited." Gendo explained, leaning back in his chair. "It was hard enough even discovering where the lab he was born in was located. We weren't able to get any of their research documents or notes. Keel has tried to keep the boy under lock and key as much as possible. They wanted to spring him on us like an assassin's blade in the night, a quick and sudden attack that we would be unable to defend against." He fell silent for a minute, staring at the ceiling. "I'm afraid that we can only offer conjecture on what he may be able to do."

Tossing the folder back onto the Commander's desk, Misato idly ran a hand through her hair. "What do you have planned for this other son of yours? Where does he figure in your plots?"

"There are contingencies that range between incarceration, subversion and extermination. It mostly depends on how close we are to initiating Impact and how close they are. The best case scenario is that they send him a day or two before our preparations are complete and we kill him outright. Worst case is that we have to try to sway him to our side, although if Keel was even half as diligent in the boy's upbringing as I was in Rei's, this will of course be impossible. In that event, it will mean outright war between SEELE and NERV. The Geo-Front can sustain itself indefinitely if we were to seal ourselves off from the surface world, although it goes without saying that this is the absolute worst case resort. It would take an Angel or an Evangelion to break through our armor and defenses from the outside."

New realization dawned on the Sub-Commander's face as the insider threat of Kaji's actions with the three power plants that kept the massive fortress city alive took on new meaning. "That's why they were so interested in the power network and infrastructure on the inside. It's not just for an invading military; it's for additional sabotage to allow them to stage a coup against you!"

"So you are starting to understand, then." Gendo said after a moment, acknowledging the event she was referencing. "Our greatest enemy was never the Angels or even ADAM, it is our fellow man. Once we seal ourselves in here, they have to break in with an Evangelion, or they have to have someone on the inside open the door. I hold the keys to the Evangelions, apart from Nagisa, but that allows them only one Evangelion, which we can defend against with ease."

Sub-Commander Fuyutuski walked into the office, his face set in a grim mask. Both Gendo and Misato looked over to him as started speaking, his voice worried.

"There's been a terrible accident. We've lost contact with NERV-Las Vegas. Dr. Akagi thinks that something went wrong with the-"

"The S2 engine." Gendo said, interrupting his friend as he rose from behind his desk. "What happened?" he asked, already moving to the door, Misato rising in his wake and trailing after them.

"We're not sure. Our Geo-stationary satellite overhead showed a massive burst of EM spectrum energy and a massive spike of gamma rays right before going offline. We've got another satellite moving into position right now, but it will be a few minutes." Kozo fell silent for a moment before continuing as they hurried down the corridor. "The MAGI report that the conditions suggest the opening of another Dirac portal, only on a much larger scale this time."

"How large?"

"Initial assessments are putting it at just over three kilometers in diameter."

Misato cursed with a sharp exhalation of breath, her face white with horror. "That means-"

"That the entire complex could be gone."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji yawned as he opened his eyes, looking around at the room. He was back at home in the apartment, which was odd, considering that the last thing he remembered was…

He frowned as he sat up, rubbing at his temples. He couldn't actually remember what the last thing he had been doing before falling asleep, but he was sure that whatever he had been doing hadn't been around the apartment. Throwing back his sheets, he stood up as he looked at his clock, which was blinking, meaning that there had been a power outage and it had reset. Twilight crept in through his room's window shades, bathing the room in an orange glow.

The entire apartment was silent and empty, and every single clock blinked back at him uselessly. The apartment felt empty and unlived in, even though all their things were still there, right down to the mess in Misato's room and Asuka's numerous bottles of shampoo and soaps in the bathroom. Despite this, the place just felt lifeless and barren, like it was all just a prop for a movie or television show. This was not a place where people lived, it was just the background of some story, to be seen but not used.

He couldn't find his cell phone, and the apartment's landline gave no dial tone.

Shinji quickly changed into regular clothes and left the apartment, locking it behind him before moving down a few doors to the Section-2 apartment; ringing the doorbell several times before unlocking it with the key he had been issued. The rooms that always housed a five man detail of agents were just as empty as his own had been, and their landline was just as dead.

Shinji quickly walked back to his apartment and retrieved his compact pistol and a spare magazine from the lockbox in his closet. After checking the pistol, he slipped the holster onto his belt and threw a light jacket on as he left the apartment again.

The streets of Tokyo-3 were empty and devoid of all life, and the only sounds were his footsteps as he walked down the center of the road as he made his way towards the Horaki's home, wishing that he knew how to drive. Seemingly abandoned vehicles lined the street, keys still in the ignition, as if waiting for their owners to return.

Clouds hung overhead, an orange sheet as they diffused the sunlight. There was no breeze, but the air was not stifling, and it wasn't noticeably warm or cool. Shinji wasn't sweating even with the jacket and the quick pace at which he moved, and it was only after a few minutes that he realized this, along with the fact that he was neither hungry or thirsty, which he always was after waking up after a coma.

The Horaki's house was unlocked, and just as empty as the rest of the city. Shinji hesitated for a moment on the front steps, staring at the half open door before pushing it the rest of the way open, calling out for Rei as he entered.

There was no sign of Rei or Hikari and her family, and no sign at where they might have gone.

Shinji wondered if he was dreaming, and how he could tell if he was asleep or awake. If he was asleep, would he be able to tell? Wasn't he supposed to be able to do things if he knew he was dreaming? He vaguely remembered hearing something to that extent from somewhere.

He sat down on Rei's bed, which was a messy crumple of sheets and pillows. Her room here at the Horaki's was cleaner than her old apartment, but it was almost just a messy. For someone who had very little in the way of personal items, she kept them in surprising disarray. He smiled a faint grin as he looked around at the room. He closed his eyes and thought about Rei, concentrating on her image. She would be dressed in some of the hand-me-downs borrowed from Hikari, a pair of blue jeans and a white blouse, over which she was wearing her labcoat. She had blue and green stripped socks on.

He opened his eyes, and was disappointed to find that he was just as alone as before. If he was in fact dreaming, he couldn't conjure up other people. Frowning, he pinched his wrist, holding the skin between the nails of his thumb and index finger for over a minute. The pain seemed real enough, as did the small indentations left on his wrist. Shinji slumped down on his girlfriend's bed, staring at the ceiling as he tried to think. He wasn't very well versed in the science surrounding lucid dreams or anything, but he was pretty sure that vertigo or a loss of balance was supposed to kick him out of the dream. He could try jumping off a building or something, and see if that worked.

If he wasn't dreaming, it probably would not be advisable to entertain thoughts of jumping off a tall building.

Rolling over onto his side, he took a deep breath and then sighed. If this was a dream, it was a very sad commentary on his subconscious. Shinji frowned as he propped himself up on his arm, staring at the pillow. Sitting up again, he picked the pillow up and took a long deep investigative sniff.

The pillow didn't smell like his girlfriend. It didn't smell like anything at all.

Eyes wide in alarm, he scrambled out of the room, looking through all the other rooms until he came to what had to be Kodama's. There was a dresser upon which sat a variety of perfumes and a small jewelry box. Picking up one of the small glass bottles, he carefully opened it, and took a small cautious sniff. The pink colored liquid had no smell. A hurried investigation revealed that none of the perfumes had a smell.

"I must be dreaming…" he said to himself, his voice seemingly too loud in the otherwise empty house. There really couldn't be any other explanation, he thought to himself as he left the room. Whoever heard of not being able to not smell things? Was that even a thing, not being able to smell? Not being able to see, hear or speak, sure, but smell? Shinji was certain that he was dreaming, but he paused as he came to the head of the stairs.

He could fall down the stairs, and it should wake himself up. If he wasn't awake, and this wasn't some strange and shitty dream, then he wouldn't be too hurt. He had suffered far worse than falling down a simple flight of stairs, after all.

He stood there at the top for what seemed to him to be an eternity, before taking a deep breath. Closing his eyes, he stuck out his prosthetic leg and stepped out.

Down at the bottom of the stairs, lying in a tangled heap of bruises and limbs, he opened his eyes again.

There was no denying the sickening loss of balance as he fell down the steps, nor could he deny the aches and pains that ran through his body, all as real as any of the sympathetic injuries that he had ever sustained in battle.

Swallowing down bile and fear, Shinji stood up, rubbing at his head. If he wasn't asleep and dreaming, then something was seriously wrong. He had to get to NERV. If anyone was around, they would be at NERV, and if anyone knew what was wrong, they would be there.

Ignoring the minor aches and twinges of pain, he ran out of the house, racing into the perpetual orange twilight, anxious to get to the nearest entrance to the Geo-Front.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Kaji made a disgusted sound as Rei returned, rushing into the room, her eyes wider than normal. She dropped the box she had been carrying down onto the counter before hurrying over to his chair, eyeing his restraints before stepping right in front of him.

"Do you know what happened at NERV-Las Vegas?" she asked with a slight edge of worry in her voice. Kaji quirked a questioning eyebrow at her before shaking his head in the negative, wondering what she was going on about.

"Was this a plan of SEELE's?" Rei asked, obviously not believing him. Kaji rolled his eyes in response, at which point Rei slapped him hard across the face.

"Was the accident at the American facility part of SEELE's plan to stop the Commander's Scenario?" Rei asked after he was done blinking in pain and surprise, interrupting his grunt of protest. Rei ripped the tape gag from his mouth, and repeated her question.

"Rei, you crazy bitch, I don't know what you're going on about." He protested, blinking back tears. "I'm not exactly privy to everything that SEELE's doing or planning, and I've been stuck in here for the past few hours. How could I possibly know what's happened half way across the other side of the world?"

Rei regarded him momentarily before going back to the counter and started sorting out the contents of her box. He stared at her from across the room, trying to think. Whatever had happened, it had to be huge to get such a reaction out of her. This was almost as bad as when she had threatened him with a knife over Shinji's breakfast.

"What happened?" he asked, trying to figure out the different parts that she was piling up. She continued to work, ignoring him. Sighing, Kaji shook his head. "Rei, I can't help you if you don't give me something to work with. I might be able to tell you if this was something that they might do, or that they did have planned. If you want me to work for you as an agent, you have to give me something."

Rei paused in her work, looking up over to him. "The NERV-Las Vegas complex was completely destroyed when a Dirac portal approximately three point four two kilometers across opened up. The depth of the crater created suggests that the portal appeared at the level of the S2 Engine labs, and the time of the accident is consistent with the timeline for the experimental S2 Engine activation." She paused as the captive spy absorbed the information. "Almost the entire facility was lost, along with over ninety five percent of the staff."

Kaji shook his head, his face white. "No, if SEELE planned something like this I don't know about it."

"There are several widespread riots around the other NERV facilities in North America, as well as in France, Spain and Russia. The United States government is threatening to seize the NERV facilities, which would mean, among other things, the loss of several in production Evangelions."

Kaji whistled, grimacing. If this was part of a SEELE power play, he hadn't been informed about it at all, but he was hardly the only deep cover asset the group had, nor did he think he was their highest placed one.

"What's the Commander doing about this?" he asked, carefully watching the girl. She didn't respond, going back to assemble some of the parts together, fitting the different components into a control housing. "Rei," Kaji spoke up again, "what is the Commander doing?"

"He has ordered the facilities in question to dump their MAGI mainframes into the NERVnet and ready the denial protocols to destroy the systems. The Evangelions are to be prepared to be destroyed in the event of a hostile seizure. All work at those facilities is to cease, and all existing experiments and labs are to be locked down until the order to resume work or destroy them is given. The Evangelion Unit-04 is closest to completion, and is being prepared for emergency retrieval."

"Rei, you have got to let me go. I need to be available to the Commander for this. I'm his highest placed agent in SEELE, he's going to want to use me to figure out if this was actually an accident or if this was planned sabotage." Kaji pleaded with the girl, trying to convince her to free him. "I can promise you that I'll serve you as your agent as well as his; SEELE has no idea that you have a lab here, hell, not even the Commander knows about this place as far as I know. I'll keep you in the loop on what they are doing, and keep your secrets. The Commander wins, you win, NERV wins."

"I do not trust you, Agent Ryoji. Your past behavior displays a consistent disregard for warnings and instructions, and does not suggest loyalty or trustworthiness. That the Commander has allowed you to act as a triple agent does not endear you to my services, and you have in the past acted in a detrimental manner towards my own plans and experiments. I do not think that I can allow you to continue to be a variable in my equations."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka glared at her tablet computer as she scrolled through the news reports, cursing under her breath as she sat next to her comatose wingman, wondering how they were going to fix this latest disaster. As if it was not bad enough that they had lost practically an entire research and development complex with all the assigned staff, the S2 Engine work that had been lost was beyond price. The ability to field Evangelions without having them tethered to the city's power frame was invaluable, and who knows how much this fiasco had set them back. That a few governments around the world were capitalizing on this and other recent events to try to outright steal from NERV, from the very people who were trying to save their sorry selves was beyond the pale.

Just as Unit-04 had been shipped out from NERV-Detroit, the facility had been stormed by the FBI and police. A terrible firefight had broken out, and the Section-2 agents torched the labs and production facilities.

Maya had told her that just after that, the Commander had given the order for all American NERV stations to destroy everything. All the relevant data had been backed up on the NERVnet, but the loss of the actual labs and the experiments being conducted therein was horrifying.

Too disgusted to continue reading, she set the computer off to the side, and looked back over Shinji as he slept, his slumber seemingly unbreakable. None of the doctors seemed to have any hope of him coming up out of the coma anytime soon. Of course, if he wasn't in a coma, he would still be out of it, on so many painkillers and sedatives that he might as well be in one. He still had massive internal tissue damage, even if they had stopped all the internal hemorrhaging. Even with the LCL they were pumping through him, it would be some time before he was ready to be off of the machines.

"Shinji, you stupid idiot." She said, not unkindly. "You need to stop falling asleep on the job, and you really need to do something about your anger management issues while in the Evangelion."

She smiled as she chuckled at the somewhat hypocritical humor before wincing at the sudden stab of pain right behind her left eye. "You also need to stop trashing the sensor systems and data recorder in Unit-01. How am I going to figure out what you're doing if you don't give me any data to work with?"

If Shinji could hear her, he made no sign of understanding or recognition. Asuka looked up as the door to the room slide open. Misato came in and leaned against the door frame, sighing as she looked at her charges.

"Keeping vigil?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest. "I'm surprised that you're not down supervising the work being done on Unit-02."

"I got ordered out by Doctor Akagi." Asuka replied. "Besides, his stupid girlfriend's not around to keep watch over him, and somebody's got to keep an eye on him."

"Well, he won't be your problem much longer. I'm sure that you heard about Unit-04?"

Asuka nodded in return. "It's being delivered to Matsushiro for the final stages of completion and the activation tests."

"That's right. We've made the pilot selection, and I want you to get him spun up as much as possible. This whole issue with Las Vegas and the riots is a bit of a mixed blessing, because it means that we got Unit-04 instead of it staying overseas." Misato sighed as she moved in out of the way of the door. "You'll have full access to the simulators for his training."

"Who's going to be the pilot?"

Toji Suzahara walked into the room, looking both uncomfortable and unhappy. He winced as he saw his friend laid out on the hospital bed, and wouldn't meet Asuka's eyes as he nodded in her direction.

Misato coughed, and then cleared her throat. "I'll leave you two to it, then. Asuka, you know what he'll need. The first activation tests won't be for at least another week or so. Toji, Asuka's the Flight Commander, and the most experienced pilot we have available to train you. Pay attention to her. I know that you didn't exactly hit it off, but-"

"I'll be fine Sub-Commander." Toji said, his voice a little sick. "I know what's at stake."

Asuka looked between the two, wondering what that was about. Misato brushed the boy's slightly hostile tone off with a nod, and then left.

"How's he doing?" Toji asked, breaking the silence as he stared at his friend. "How are you doing?" he asked, almost as an afterthought.

"He's refusing to wake up." She replied, shaking her head. "You're really going to be the new pilot?" she asked skeptically.

"Yeah, I'm gonna be the new pilot." Toji's tone was hostile and surly. "I ain't gonna give you any grief if you don't give me none. You know I've been inside the Evangelion before. You know I'm strong enough. You know I can fight. I play team sports, you know I can follow orders."

Asuka slowly nodded. Everything he had said was true. "You saw him in Unit-01. You've seen what we're up against."

"Yeah. I've seen it."

"Does Hikari know?"

Toji nodded silently before speaking up. "She knows. She screamed at me, and started crying, but she knows. I had to tell her, so she would know why I wanted her and Kodama to look over Mari." He sighed, slouching against the wall. "I figure that I'm going to be too busy to watch her, and Dad and Gramps are busy working on fixing the Evangelions up."

"She'll be in good hands." Asuka said after a few moments. "Hikari's almost like an older sister to her," she offered. "Nozomi will keep her company too."

"Yeah."

"So…" Asuka trailed off, grasping for something to say, to lighten the mood. "Um… I'm surprised that Aida didn't volunteer. Does he know?"

"Kenskue's dad shipped him off their relatives out of the prefecture." Toji said. "He hasn't been online, and his cell's been out of service for the past two days."

"Oh."

"He wouldn't have volunteered. He doesn't like the idea of the whole bio-feedback deal. He's more interested on a technical level, he says." Toji shrugged, looking up at the ceiling. "He also says something about the whole thing not making any sense, unless the stuff he's managed to hack is all lies."

Asuka regarded him silently for a moment before nodding, holding a finger in front of her mouth. "He might be right, Toji. A lot of things haven't been making sense around here lately, I've noticed." She stood up, casting a final glance at the machines that monitored the sleeping boy as the beginnings of a plan began to form in her mind. "Do me a favor, and tell him to drop me a line the next time you see him online, okay?"

Toji looked at her, confused, but then nodded.

"I'm going to go get something to eat, and we can talk some more. Interested?"

"Sure."

Asuka smiled. "Welcome to the First Evangelion Flight, Pilot Suzahara."

Author's Notes:

_Just a reminder that none of the characters are operating with perfect knowledge of what's happened and what's currently happening. How much this might come to bite them in the rear before it's all said and done remains to be seen._

_Also, I'm glad that people liked the fact that Shinji is ADAM, and that he went back in time to cause the Big Bang and is ultimately the source of all this mess.  
_

_Nobody knows that. Lilith only knows that Shinji is somehow connected to ADAM, which is why she was so interested in him in the Chamber of Guf.  
_


End file.
